Big Hero Glitch
by Toa Aerrow
Summary: Vanellope Von Schweetz. Known as the Candy Princess in the shady alleys of Sacroshima. Pulling her away from that, her uncle Ralph moves them to San Fransokyo to change things, only to drag her into a bigger problem. With her friends kidnapped, and a supervillain on the loose, Van will have to turn to a team of superheroes for help, and it turns out she knows one of them already.
1. Prologue: When Can I See You Again?

**Hello, readers! I'm Toa Aerrow, and this time I'm presenting a story idea from someone else!**

 **Okay, so The Terribles wasn't totally my idea either, but this time I've actually collaborated (shocking, I know) with Hanaekaptr on DeviantArt to produce a story idea she invented.**

 **It started with me searching for pictures on DVA of Hiro Hamada from Disney's Big Hero 6, and Vanellope Von Schweetz from Disney's Wreck-it Ralph. I figured they'd make a cute couple. Then I found Hanaekaptr's images, and she took it even further.**

 **She created a dancer AU for Van, and drew images of the two of them as children and young adults. Then I started a comment conversation on her image 'Sugar Rush', which led to us exchanging notes and planning an entire story of turning a shady dancer into a teleporting superheroine with a connection to Hiro and the Big Hero 6. That is this.**

 **And that is what will begin here, in this prologue.**

 **Now, if you head over to Hanaekaptr's DVA page, you'll find she has uploaded a cover for the story, a larger version of the one in the upper left corner of the screen. You'll also find a preview image for a scene in this chapter. Previews will be uploaded by her roughly a week before a chapter is uploaded, so stay tuned to Hanaekaptr to get a warning for a chapter update!**

 **Now get ready! It's gonna be epic! It's gonna be amazing! It's gonna be…**

 **…Big!**

 **Prologue: When Can I See You Again?**

Tadashi Hamada took a deep breath, breathing in the fresh park air.

The ten-year-old boy allowed himself to smile for the first time in weeks. He was surprised it had really been that long since the crash, since his mom and dad…

He and his toddler of a brother, Hiro, now lived with their aunt Cassandra, in the shining and high-tech city of San Fransokyo.

The smile got wiped from his face as something big and round hit him in the back of the head, sending him sprawling to the ground. His face hit the grass, and he spluttered a bit as he pushed himself up. He glared back in the direction the ball had come from only to see his little brother and their aunt running towards him.

"Sorry, 'Dashi!" the messy-haired little boy in an orange shirt apologised, laughing as he stopped a few feet away.

"Tadashi, are you alright?" Cass asked him as she reached Hiro.

Tadashi frowned and glared at his little brother as he stood up, smoothing out his yellow shirt as he did so.

"What where you're throwing that thing, knucklehead!" he growled.

Hiro frowned back at him.

"I told you to catch!" he rebutted.

"I was enjoying the air!"

"But we were playing catch!"

"That's enough, you two!" Aunt Cass scolded them. "Hiro, apologise to Tadashi for hitting him. Tadashi, apologise for yelling."

Hiro looked down, ashamed, and shyly looked up to his big brother.

"Sorry, nii-chan." The little boy said.

Tadashi tried his hardest to stay mad, but the frowny, sorry look Hiro was giving him made him cave in. He sighed.

"It's okay, otouto." He replied. "And… I'm sorry for yelling."

Hiro looked up at Tadashi again, and immediately brightened.

"Now come on!" the younger boy ran forward and grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him back towards the middle of the park. "Let's go play!"

Hiro Hamada laughed with joy, and Tadashi couldn't help but join in. Cass sighed and picked up the ball, and walked after them into the park.

Hiro dragged his big brother along until they reached the centre of the park, where he stopped and turned to him.

"So, otouto," Tadashi spoke, leaning down to his pint-sized brother. "What'd'ya wanna play?"

Hiro thought for a moment, before an excited smile came over him.

"Hide-And-Seek!" he shouted.

"Okay, Hide-And-Seek it is!" Tadashi agreed.

"YAY!"

"You run off and hide," Tadashi told him. ", and I'll count to a hundred!"

"You can count that high!?" Hiro asked.

"I thought your highest was a thousand?" Tadashi replied.

"Yeah, but I'm the smart one!"

"Ju-hust go!" Tadashi shouted, laughing.

Hiro ran off into the trees at one side of the park, and Tadashi held an arm over his eyes and began counting.

* * *

Hiro ran around tree after tree, dodging roots and weeds and low-hanging branches.

 **[0:16] Owl City – When Can I See You Again**

 _~ Switch on the sky, and the stars glow for you._

 _~ Go see the world, 'cause it's all so brand new._

 _~ Don't close your eyes, 'cause your future's ready to shine._

 _~ It's just a matter of time before we learn how to FLY!_

Stepping on top of a small log, he leaped, flying out through the air, laughing all the way. He imagined he was a bird, or a plane, flying through the skies above the city.

And, very briefly, he imagined he was a superhero. Flying on the back of his own red flight robot and wearing a purple suit, fleeing awesome the whole way.

 _~ Welcome to the rhythm of the NIGHT!_

He landed on the leafy ground ahead of him, and stumbled slightly, but kept running and kept laughing as he ran across the ground.

 _~ There's something in the air you can't DENY!_

Finding the perfect hiding spot, the back of a large tree, he dodged behind it and pressed his back to it. He giggled as he looked back around the trunk, watching out for his big brother.

Then he heard something. A voice. A high-pitched voice was talking to someone. He turned his head back to the area in front of him, frowning, and saw something behind the bushes.

A little, rainbow-coloured toy rocket was held aloft above and behind the bushes. A little arm held it, running around the back of the bush, coming back towards the edge. The voice of a little girl emanated from below the toy.

"Come on, Baymax!" the little girl was saying. "We've got to get to the launch site!"

The girl then made zooming noises, and ran around the side of the bush and into the line of sight of Hiro.

She had a pudgy, round face, complete with a button nose, and large, hazel-brown eyes. Her head was topped with messy black hair that was covered in bits of sweets and was tied back in a ponytail with a red bow. She wore a little aqua-green hoodie, a double-pleated short brown skirt, and mismatched stripped leggings that covered her otherwise bare feet. In one hand she held the rainbow rocket high, while the other she dangled beside her, holding a white push doll with stumpy legs and arms, and a simplistic face.

"We're almost there, Bay-"

The girl looked forwards and noticed Hiro, still pressing his back against the tree trunk. She stopped running, her mouth falling open with wonder and a little surprise. Then she smiled again.

"Hello!" she greeted, waving the rocket in the air.

She skipped over to him and held out her right hand, still holding the plush toy.

"I'm Vanellope!" she said loudly, and excitedly for meeting someone new.

Hiro stared at the girl, sceptically. Naturally, he was unused to random strangers coming up to him and greeting him. Especially ones as young as this girl obviously was.

Besides, what kind of a name was 'Vanellope'?

"Uhh…"

"What's YOUR name?" she asked, holding her hand out a bit further.

"Um," he shook his head slightly. "H-Hiro." He answered, but still didn't grab her hand.

"Hiro?" she giggled. "What kind of a name is that?"

"The normal kind." He answered, a bit insulted. 'Vanellope' couldn't talk, having such a ridiculous name herself.

"Come on! Ya gonna shake?"

To emphasise, she wiggled the fingers that weren't holding the plush toy.

Hiro remained still a moment, then, grudgingly, released his hand from grasping the tree trunk and grabbed her hand and shook. Vanellope giggled, then, much to his surprise, began shaking his hand wildly back and forth, sending him nearly flying off if he hadn't been holding the trunk with his other hand.

He ripped his hand from hers and immediately returned it to the tree, while Vanellope held hers together in front of her with both toys still grasped.

"Hey, ya wanna play?" she asked excitedly.

Hiro said nothing, just inched back into the tree.

"I-I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." he muttered.

"Oh, come on, Toothgap!" she beckoned, still smiling. "It'll be fun!"

Hiro felt his tongue to the mentioned gap in his teeth, and frowned again at the nickname. He was intent on saying 'no' again to this weird girl, only he was stopped when he heard his older brother calling him.

* * *

"Hiro!" Tadashi called. "Otouto! Come out, come out, wherever you are!"

The game of Hide-And-Seek was on, and Tadashi walked through the trees, noticing his every move shadowed by his aunt.

He looked around, searching for signs of his brother. Looking ahead, he saw an indent in the ground ahead of a log, probably where someone had leapt. It looked fresh, so someone had done it recently. Following its path, he saw it leading behind the trunk of a large tree.

He smiled. The perfect hiding place. Therefore the worst if you're playing with a genius.

"I can hear you!" he teased, stepping towards the tree. "I know you're there!"

He stepped closer, walking to the side of the trunk.

"I can…"

He jumped out from behind the trunk.

"SEE YOU!"

What he saw surprised him.

Number one, his brother was backed up against the tree trunk, clinging to it as if he would fall up and out into space if he let go.

And secondly, he saw the three-year-old girl standing in front of him, smiling like it was her birthday, clutching her two toys in her hands.

"Hello!" she greeted enthusiastically.

Tadashi couldn't help but notice as his brother winced slightly.

"Hey!" Tadashi greeted back.

He stepped towards them, and the little girl stepped backwards a bit to give them some room.

"What's your name?" Tadashi asked.

"I'm Vanellope!" she yelled. Hiro winced again.

"Tadashi." he replied, holding out a hand.

The girl held out the hand holding the plush toy and shook Tadashi's. The older boy noticed his brother shaking his head from his position, still clinging to the tree trunk.

"Are you his brother?" the girl asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, can you convince him to play with me?" Vanellope asked. "He's being no fun!"

Tadashi chuckled.

"Well, I can't speak for him," he said. ", But I suppose I'd like to play."

"YAY!" the girl yelled, dancing on the spot.

Hiro managed to inch forward from the tree and grab onto Tadashi's leg, still shaking his head. Vanellope, meanwhile, composed herself and looked up at the taller Hamada.

"Come on! The sugar monsters are invading!" she said. She held up the plush toy. "I'm taking Baymax to their home to stop them!"

"Then let's go!" Tadashi played along.

The girl turned around and held the rocket in the air, running towards the edge of the trees to the rest of the park.

"To the peppermint moon!" she shouted, leading the way. **[1]**

Tadashi chuckled and began to follow, only to find he couldn't move his leg. He looked down to see his little brother tightening his arms around his leg, frowning after the girl.

"Don't go near her, 'Dashi." He pleaded. "She's weird."

Tadashi chuckled at his brother's clear dislike of the girl. He kneeled down in front of him.

"Oh, come on, otouto! It'll be fun!" he told him.

"We WERE having fun!" Hiro argued. "We were playing Hide-And-Seek, not imaginary land with stranger weird girl!"

"Well," Tadashi replied, ", you can go back to Aunt Cass, while I'LL go play with 'Stranger Weird Girl'."

And with that, Tadashi took advantage of the fact that Hiro had let go of his leg, and ran after Vanellope.

"'Dashi, wait!" Hiro wailed, then ran right after him.

"Hold on, you two!" Cass, who'd been watching, followed.

Tadashi quickly caught up with Vanellope, who'd slowed down when he hadn't followed. Upon seeing him running after her, Vanellope smiled and continued running herself, keeping herself within playing range of Tadashi.

"We've reached space, and are on course for the peppermint moon!" she shouted. "What's that, Baymax? The sugar monsters are following us!? Oh no!"

She turned and smiled at Tadashi, which he took to mean HE was the sugar monster.

"Raaaar!" he play-growled, clawing his hands and holding them up above his head.

"Hold tight Baymax!" Vanellope instructed her toy. "This is gonna be rough!"

 _~ Till then…_

 _~ When can we do this again!?_

 _~ AH-OH-OH-oh!_

 _~ When can I see you again!?_

 _~ AH-OH-OH-oh!_

Then she ran as fast as she could through the park, followed swiftly with 'sugar monster' Tadashi, the complaining Hiro, and a bemused Aunt Cass. They left the trees and returned to the grassy park area. Vanellope slowed as they neared the climbing frame at the centre, continually chatting to Baymax and looked back towards her new friend.

 _~ When can we do this again!?_

 _~ AH-OH-OH-oh!_

"Almost there, Baymax!" she said. "We just need to land, and then-"

"Vivian!" Someone suddenly called from the car park. "Time to go!"

For the first time since they'd met, both Tadashi and Hiro, who'd just caught up with the girl, saw her loose her smile. She slumped and moaned, turning towards the source.

Said source was a woman in her early-thirties, walking towards Vanellope, or 'Vivian' rather. She had a very similar look to Vanellope, although her raven hair hung loose down past her shoulders. She wore a simple green polo shirt, as well as faded blue jeans and white sneakers.

"Do we have to?" Vanellope asked her mother. "I just made some new friends!"

She gestured to the Hamada brothers, the smiling Tadashi, and the frowning and panting Hiro.

"New friends?"

The woman turned to see the two boys.

"Oh! Hello!" she greeted as she reached her daughter. "Who are you?"

"I'm Tadashi." The older brother replied, walking towards them, pulling along his frowning brother. "This is my brother, Hiro."

"HE's my friend." Vanellope clarified, pointing to Tadashi. Then she pointed at Hiro. "HE didn't want to play with me!"

"Aww! It's fine, Hiro." Her mother spoke to the boy. "She not bad! She just wants to play!"

Hiro glared down at the ground with a mix expression of annoyance and a little bit of shame. Coming from his brother something like that was just something to shrug off. Coming from a parent, though? That was big.

At that moment, Cass finally spotted the group, and ran over with relief.

"Oh, there you are!" she shouted to the brothers, causing all four people to turn to look at her.

Noticing the woman, Cass slowed down to a walk and calmly went over.

"Hi!" she greeted. "I'm Cass."

"Melanie." Vanellope's mother replied. "Are you their mother?"

"No, no I'm their aunt." Cass answered. "Their parents are… well…"

She stopped herself from saying the word when she saw Tadashi's grieving frown return. She cleared her throat.

"And she's yours?" she asked back.

"Yeah, she is." Melanie responded. "My Vivian, though she likes to be called 'Vanellope'."

The girl in question giggled at this, clearly about some inside joke.

"Hey, I own a café down in the mid-city!" Cass told Melanie. "You know, the Lucky Cat Café? Perhaps you and your daughter could come on down there sometime?"

Melanie smiled, and answered. "Sure! I'll be free Wednesday next week!"

"Great!"

"Yay!" Vanellope exclaimed, bouncing on the spot and turning to the boys. "Maybe we can play again!"

"Okay!" Tadashi said.

"Oh, boy!" Hiro groaned.

"Okay!" Cass said. "Well, I'll see you there Mrs…?"

"Von Schweetz." Melanie finished for her. "And you're…?"

"Hamada."

"Right! Well, looking forward to it!" Melanie said. "See you there!"

And she reached to grab her daughter's hand (Baymax toy included) and began leading her back towards the car park.

"Bya 'Dashi! Bye Ms Hamada!" Vanellope said as they walked away. "Bye Toothgap!"

Hiro frowned in annoyance at the nickname one more as the three Hamada's watched the two Von Schweetzs walk off.

 _~ When can I see you again!?_

* * *

The next Thursday, the bell ringing at Cass's café door signalled to arrival of a customer, and the waitress/shop keeper smiled when she saw the two arrivals.

"Hey!" she called.

"Hey!" Was the near-identical reply from Melanie Von Schweetz.

The other woman walked into the café, her daughter hanging off her arm clutching the plush toy. The girl wore the same clothes she did before, though now also wearing small black boots with salmon pink soles.

"Sorry I couldn't come here yesterday." Melanie apologised as she reached the counter. "Something came up at work. I had to… fill in."

"That's okay!" Cass said. "Any day's fine! So, what would you like?"

"Well…"

"TOOTHGAP!"

The two woman started in surprise, Melanie startled as Vanellope's hand left hers, to see the girl running over to a table by the window of the café. Sitting there were Tadashi and Hiro, the elder tapping away at a video game, the younger trying a go at a puzzle. Hiro's head bobbed up at the familiar voice, and he groaned and hit his head on the table as Vanellope reached them.

"Heya, Toothgap!" she shouted. "Heya, 'Dashi!"

"Vanellope!" Tadashi said. "What're you doing here?"

"Breakfast!" was her reply.

In a few moments, Melanie and her daughter were settled at the same table the boys were at, much to Hiro's irritation. Cass came up to them with a digital menu on a tablet.

"So, what would you two like?" their aunt repeated to the guests.

Vanellope answered first.

"ICE CREAM!" She shouted. "With LOTS of vanilla!"

Melanie giggled before answering Cass.

"Just two peanut-butter-jelly sandwiches, please." She said. "And, maybe a SMALL ice cream. Vanilla."

Cass nodded and started walking back to the counter. Tadashi, meanwhile, turned to Vanellope.

"So, THAT's why you have that nickname?" he asked her.

Vanellope turned to him, giggling again.

"Why vanilla?" Hiro asked. He couldn't help but be intrigued. "Chocolate's always the best."

"No it's not!" Vanellope shot back, though she was still smiling. "Vanilla's AWESOME!"

"No no no. Aunt Cass's chocolate is the best."

"Nope! Never!"

"Stop fighting, you two!" Melanie forced buck a giggle at the two adorable kids fighting over ice cream flavours.

Then Aunt Cass returned with Melanie's order, plus breakfasts for her nephews.

"Here you go!"

She placed them in front of their respective persons. Vanellope immediately dove into her small bowl of ice cream, despite her mother telling her to start with the sandwich.

As the morning wore on, the two Von Schweetz stayed at the café, Melanie chatting with Cass as she worked, while Vanellope played with Tadashi and the plush toy on the table.

"…and the Sugar Monsters fought back, but Baymax STOPPED them!" Vanellope squeaked as she played her game, Tadashi making noises to go along with it.

Hiro rolled his eyes in frustration as he lost his concentration on his Sudoku puzzle AGAIN. He groaned and slammed his head on the table. Vanellope and Tadashi turned to him.

"Aww! Itty bitty Toothgap is tired!" Tadashi joked.

Hiro looked up and did his best death glare at his older brother.

"Oh, come on, Toothgap, it's just a joke!" Vanellope defended Tadashi.

"Can't you do something else!?" Hiro complained. "Something that DOESN'T distract me!?"

"Come on! You wanna be annoying when you grow up!?"

"YOU'RE the annoying one!"

"No no no, I'm not gonna be annoying." Vanellope rebutted. "When I grow up, I'll build a race car out of candy and pastry! It'll run on vanilla ice cream, and will shower the WORLD in sweetness!"

Hiro almost laughed at the silliness of this, before remembering he was annoyed at her. So he decided to try and beat her at this 'game'.

"Well I'M gonna make a super big flying gummy bear!" he all but shouted. "One that grows again when it's eaten, so I can eat it every day and fly around the city!"

Now it was Vanellope's turn to burst out laughing.

"That's silly!" she exclaimed.

"Says pastry car driver!"

"But a flying gummy bear!?" Vanellope laughed again.

"A car that runs on ice cream!?" Hiro shot back.

"'Oh, I'll fly around the city on my magic GUMMY BEAR!'" Vanellope mocked.

"'I'll shower the WORLD in SWEETNESS!'" Hiro returned.

Together, the three and four-year-olds burst out laughing at each other's fantasies, joking about them both, even their own ones. Heads in the café turned, and some of them smiled at the two loudly-laughing kids.

When everything calmed down, Hiro looked at Vanellope, who was still smiling widely. She turned and looked at him, short of breath from laughing so much. Then she smiled wider. Not her usual, mocking smile. Nor the smile before, right after laughing so much. This was a friendly smile, one usually shared by two friends having fun.

Hiro smiled back.

A friendship made, Vanellope turned to Tadashi.

"What about ya', 'Dashi!?" she asked him.

"I think…"

Tadashi looked up and thought for a moment. Then he smiled.

"I want to be an inventor." He said simply, looking back at the girl. "I wanna build robots, like those cool things that run around the city."

"Hey, you could make Baymax!" Vanellope exclaimed.

"What?"

Vanellope held up her plush toy, which she still held in her hand, up to the older Hamada.

"You could make a BIG balloon robot with stubby legs and feet and call him Baymax!" She suggested, gesturing to the toy. "Like him!"

Tadashi smiled at the toy, but couldn't really think of how he could build such a thing.

' _What could be the use of a bot like that anyway?_ ' He thought.

He shrugged to the girl.

"I dunno." He answered. "Maybe."

"Well if you don't make him, I will!"

"Before or after the candy car?" Hiro jokingly asked her.

"AT THE SAME TIME!"

* * *

If one looked for Hiro any time after that, they'd almost NEVER find him apart from Vanellope.

 _~ Joined at the hip, yeah your sidekick needs you!_

Melanie and her daughter visited the Lucky Cat Café often, staying for breakfast, sometimes leaving Vanellope there while she went off to work. Vanellope, or 'Van' as Hiro called her, would sit and chat with the two Hamadas, when they weren't at school or kindergarten, sometimes playing with her plush toy or her rocket. Mostly the plush toy. Hiro wouldn't always join in on her games, but did so often. He did, however, eventually warm up to the affectionate name of 'Toothgap'.

 _~ Life is a trip down the road that leads you!_

When the Hamada brothers weren't there, Van would do well to stay near Cass, the only other person there she knew. Cass was kind, gentle, and loving, and often gave her ice cream when she asked for it. She'd also introduced her to the family cat, a tiny, ginger-and-white kitten named Mochi. It was a bit of a sluggish hairball, and often quite hungry as Vanellope had noticed.

 _~ Look all around at the mountains you haven't climbed!_

Months went by. The year clicked over, and Tadashi moved up a grade, while Hiro jumped straight up from kindergarten to first grade. The jump surprised pretty much everyone except the Hamadas and Vanellope, who'd seen well enough that Hiro was smarter than most people. Vanellope herself had also started kindergarten, and Melanie had made sure to put her in the same school as Hiro, even though they were in completely different parts of the school. **[2]**

 _~ It's just a matter of time before we learn how to FLY!_

Hiro often came home with homework, mostly stuff that he'd chosen to do himself, and, seeing as her parents had to work long hours, Vanellope followed. At one point, Hiro sat himself and tied himself down in the work, only for Van to continually distract him with gummy bears. In the end he'd forgotten about the work and just ended up playing with his friend, eating a lot of gummy bears at the same time.

 _~ Welcome to the rhythm of the NIGHT!_

Hiro's birthday came along, and, coincidentally, Van's came a week later. That gave both Cass and Melanie the idea to close the café early on a day in the week between and have a combined birthday party for the two of them. Not many people were invited, as neither Hiro nor Van had many friends, shortening the list down to the birthday kids, Tadashi, Cass, Melanie, Vanellope's dad Vincent, her uncles Ralph and Felix, who was with her Aunt Tamora, as well as Stan Lieber, a friend of her parents.

 _~ There's something in the air you can't DENY!_

Ralph was a mountain of a man, nearly as tall as the Hulk. He had auburn hair, brown eyes and massive fists the size of dinner plates. He had a bit of a temper on him, especially towards Vincent, though he seemed to have a soft spot for Vanellope. The little three (now four) year-old looked up to the gentle giant, and indeed he was the first guest she introduced Hiro too, even before introducing him and his brother to her father.

 _~ It's been fun but now I've got to go!_

That evening there were lots of jokes, chatter, and just noise, not to mention bowls and bowls of ice cream of both Cass' famous chocolate and Van's favourite flavour. Cass made her chicken wings, with hot sauce that made everyone's faces numb, and Melanie had insisted that she'd be the one to bring the birthday cake.

 _~ Life is way too short to take it slow!_

It was enormous. Three, gradually shrinking layers, made of cocoa with a vanilla filling and icing, and topped with candles of the kids made by Felix. The teal-coloured sides were decorated with various confectionary, some of which were gummy bears that mysteriously disappeared partway through the evening. Vanellope joked around by putting some of sweets in her hair, prompting her father to swiftly pull them out again. Overall, it was a good evening.

 _~ But before I go and hit the roooooaaaooohd,_

Which the uncles and friends left around 9:00, Vanellope insisted that she stay over to play with Hiro and Tadashi. They introduced her to their bedroom, which, at this time, was filled with bits and pieces of a project the older brother was working on. Hiro showed Van a toy racecar he had, which the two of them began to pepper with stickers to make it look like it was made of candy. Tadashi played along with the duo, though he wasn't having nearly as much fun.

 _~ I gotta know, till then,_

 _~ When can we do this again!?_

A few hours down the line, even AFTER Cass had called for them all to go to bed, Tadashi crept down the stairs to the café, leaving the playing kids alone in the room. He snuck down, making sure not to wake Cass, making it to the fridge to grab some leftover cookies.

 _~ AH-OH-OH-oh!_

 _~ When can I see you again!?_

As he carefully returned from his 5 minute snack-shopping, carefully stepping toward the stairs to main house, Tadashi immediately realised something was wrong. There was no noise coming from upstairs. Hiro and Vanellope weren't making a sound. That meant they were up to something, and if the last few months had taught him anything, it was that no noise from his brother and friend could only mean one thing:

Trouble.

 _~ AH-OH-OH-oh!_

 _~ When can we do this again!?_

The eleven-year-old scanned the café, looking for something that was out of place. Nothing, everything was left as Cass had left it, having cleaned up earlier. Getting doubly suspicious, he cautiously crept up the stairs to the private kitchen. He began to fret over what the two had been doing.

' _Oh, the living room must be a mess!_ ' he thought. ' _Wait, forget the living room, who knows what happened in the kitchen!'_

 _~ AH-OH-OH-oh!_

 _~ I gotta know!_

"I should not have left them alone," he told himself as he neared the top. ", not even for two minutes. What does the bedroom look like now? What will Aunt Cass say? Gosh, this is a huge mistake, a really-"

He reached the top and immediately stopped his muttering.

 _~ When can I see you again!?_

The upstairs was just… fine. The kitchen was clear and clean, just as Cass had left it earlier. He stepped into the living room, finding that clean too. Just some bits of toys and robot parts here and there, but those were HIS fault, and other than that, nothing.

"Everything's fine?"

As he stepped up the stairs to their joint bedroom, he heard a soft, childlike sigh. He quietly opened the door and took in the sight in front of him, right on Hiro's bed.

"Well, would you look at that…" he said as quietly as he could.

 _~ Don't close your eyes, 'cause your future's ready to shine._

Lying on top of the bed were the two rascals, Hiro's head on a pillow, with Vanellope sprawled over him. One of their hands each was lying over the side, to where her Baymax toy and his race car were lying on the floor, dropped.

To Tadashi, the sight was absolutely adorable. Only Cass would find it cuter.

' _Where's the camera?_ ' he thought. ' _This would be a great photo for the wedding album._ ' **[3]**

 _~ It's just a matter of time before we learn how to FLY!_

* * *

The three friends, especially the two little kids, remained the best together, laughing and playing when they could. At lunch times the duo would run around, often with Baymax in one of their hands, having the time of their lives. Tadashi joined them after school, and Van often visited the café, and sometimes even the two visited her home.

 _~ Welcome to the rhythm of the NIGHT!_

 _~ There's something in the air you can't DENY!_

One day, the two families visited a park, and Hiro and Vanellope were handed a lollipop each. They ran around, playing, hand in hand, having the time of their lives. They were together, and best of friends for all time. And for that one moment, everything was perfect. **[4]**

 _~ So let me know before I wave goodbye!_

 **[Cut-off]**

And then that moment ended.

* * *

Rain fell from a dark and dreary sky. And it wasn't the only water that fell that day. Tears dripped from a four-year-old girl's eyes and she stared down at the grass of the cemetery. Hiro gripped her hand tight, unable to say a thing, but wallow in the sadness of the moment.

There'd been an accident. Apparently someone had gotten caught at an intersection. A traffic jam had followed. And in the chaos, the little blue minivan driven by Vincent Von Schweetz had crashed. Vanellope, strapped safely to the back seat, had survived. She was the only one to do so.

The funeral was a week later. Everyone was there. Van's uncles and aunt was there, as was Stan. Some of Tadashi's friends had shown up, giving their support to the girl. The Hamadas were there, and Hiro had never left her side throughout the proceedings.

As they stood in the graveyard, lifting black umbrellas over their heads, Ralph and Cass watched from not far behind the two kids. As the closest family either of them had left, they were now responsible for them. Ralph turned slightly to the woman.

"I need to take her." Was all he said.

Cass nodded, and the big man stepped forward wordlessly, and reached down to grab his niece's arm to gently pull her away from the grave and from Hiro.

The afternoon wore on, and everyone met at the reception in the café. Hiro noticed Van was missing. After some looking, he found her standing in the living room, in front of Ralph, who knelt down to talk to her. She was looking downward, downcast, and clutching the little plush toy the boy'd come to know as Baymax tightly. She nodded carefully as Ralph finished speaking, then walked over to where Hiro was watching.

She opened her mouth to speak, then choked up and sobbed.

"It's okay, Vanellope." Ralph said, standing behind her. "Take your time."

Hiro had no idea what to do. His best, and only friend, usually so happy and bouncing off the walls, was now a shivering wreck. With nothing else he could think of, he settled on wrapping his arms around her, holding her tight, patting her back until she stopped.

He let go and stood back, and, finally, she spoke.

"Uncle Ralph is taking me away." She said.

Hiro's mouth dropped in horror. Away? AWAY away?

"Why?" he asked her.

Vanellope wiped away a tear.

"He says it's not safe for me." She answered. "But I'll be okay where we're going."

"Where?" he continued. "How long?"

She did nothing but shake her head to indicate she either didn't know or couldn't tell him. The two looked down to the floorboards, immensely saddened. They said nothing, just stood in the silence, watched by Ralph, Tadashi and Cass from the sides.

Finally, after a long while, Vanellope reached out a hand and grabbed Hiro's, and into it she placed her prised plush toy.

"Take good care of him." She said, looking up at her friend.

Hiro was surprised by this gesture, and once again asked, "Why?"

"So you can remember me," She answered. ", Hiro."

* * *

Her saying his name for the first time ever was the last thing she said to him. Nothing more was said that night, and the next day Ralph and Vanellope boarded a plane to Sacroshima, far south in the state from San Fransokyo. The Hamada's saw them off, but nothing was said, the sadness from the last few days still ever-present. One year after they had met, Vanellope Von Schweetz and Hiro Hamada parted ways.

But as the plane drove away, and Hiro looked up to the window, he locked eyes with his best friend in the world, and in those eyes was a promise.

' _I WILL come back. I WILL return. I WILL see you again._ '

 **[Downbeat/Sad music]**

 _~ It's been fun but now I've got to go._

 _~ Life is way too short to take it slow._

 _~ But before I go and hit the road,_

 _~ I gotta know…_

 _~ When can I see you again?_

* * *

 **[1] As you might have noticed, this scene is based on Hanaekaptr's 'First Impression' image.**

 **[2] By the way, Wikipedia is my only source of knowledge on the US education system. I don't even know/remember whether first years are even given homework. I just wanted to picture a scene similar to Hanaekaptr's 'Disturbance' image.**

 **[3] This scene, as you also may have noticed, is Hanaekaptr's 'Tired Rascals'!**

 **[4] Hanaekaptr's latest image, 'Innocent Days'. Also, I figured that Tangled reference would be perfect for this part.**

 **Trivia: I didn't actually know how to write the younger versions of Hiro, Van and 'Dashi at first, but I figured it out in the end. For Van I took inspiration from Bonnie from Toy Story 3, the enthusiastic story role-playing. For Tadashi, the eldest of the three, who's just lost his parents, I expected him to be moody at first and just warming up to things again. I like to think Van really helped with that. And Hiro, I kinda thought a bit back to little Anna from Frozen. Plus his reaction to Van in Hanaekaptr's pic is completely see-through.**

 **Aww! So sad! I nearly brought myself to tears writing that last part! But, it's for the story, and it's necessary. Besides, now Hiro and Vanellope have something in common: They both live with a parent's sibling given that their parents' are dead!**

 **Okay, that was a bit dark.**

 **Anyway, will their joint question be answered? Will they see each other again?**

 **Next Time: Chapter 1: What You Did in the Dark**


	2. Chapter 1: What You Did in the Dark

**Superfan44: I s'pose that is a bit of a plot error. Hiro would've recognised the plush toy he'd been given immediately, while in the film he had a look of confusion on his face. I suppose you're right and he didn't say anything at the time.**

 **Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed! I appreciate all of your support  
Don't forget that while I'm the writer, this was all Hanaekaptr's idea. I just filled in the blanks and fleshed it out. So don't forget to check out her DeviantArt page, where all of her official artwork for the story is going.  
If you make your own artwork, send her a note in DVA, which she'll probably send on to me, just so we know to look!**

 **And now, back to the present, a blast from the past, and the beginning of this Dancer AU!**

 ** _EDIT: Been going through my chapters fixing stuff. Afraid I haven't fixed the monstrosity I tried to call 'dancing' below though. Read at your own risk._**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **[0:00]: Fall Out Boy - Immortals**

 **Toa Aerrow Presents**

 **A Hanaekaptr Idea**

 **Based on Disney's** **Big Hero 6**

 _~ They say we are what we are, but we don't have to be!_

 **And with characters from Disney's** **Wreck-It Ralph**

 _~ I'm bad behaviour, but I do it in the best way!_

 **Based on images by Hanaekaptr on DeviantArt**

 _~ I'll be the watcher! (watcher!) I'll be eternal flame!_

 **Story by Toa Aerrow**

 _~ I'll be the guard dog of all your fever dreams!_

 **Sarah Silverman**

 _~ OooOoooooOOh!_

 **Ryan Potter**

 _~ I am the sand bottom half of the hour glass!_

 **John C. Reilly**

 _~ OooOoooooOOh!_

 **and Scott Adsit as Baymax**

 _~ I try to picture me without you but I can't!_

 _~ 'Cause we could be…_

 **BIG HERO GLITCH**

 _~ IMMORTALS! Immortals!_

 _~ Just not for long! For long!_

 **Jamie Chung, Génesis Rodríguez, Damon Wayans, T.J. Miller**

 _~ You live with me forever now!_

 _~ Pull the blackout curtains down!_

 **Mindy Kaling, Katie Lowes**

 _~ Just not for long! For long!_

 _~ We could be…_

 **with Alan Tudyk**

 _~ IMMORRR—Immortals!_

 **and Stan Lee as himself**

 _~ IMMORRR—Immortals!_

 **Co-Planned by Hanakeptr**

 _~ IMMORRR—Immortals!_

 **and Written by Toa Aerrow**

 _~ IMMORRR—Immortals!_

 **Chapter 1: What You Did in the Dark**

' _I-I-IMMORTALS!_ '  
The speakers blared as the song ended, and the crowd burst out in cheers.

They weren't cheering for the music, though.

Out here in the back alleys of Sacroshima, crowds gathered around hastily-built stages to watch people dance, hip-hop style. There were always two stages, for people usually went out in teams here and compete in dance battles to see who had the best moves.

And where there was competition, there was usually betting.

"The winners!" The announcer shouted, a young adult African-American girl with a big rainbow afro. "With the use of the killer finishing move by their leader, Minty Zaki, give it up for the Mint Sisters!"

The three girl dancers on the left stage bowed as the announcer held out her prize dish to allow Minty to take the team's winnings, while their competition skulked away from their own stage in disappointment.

"Thanks, Snowanna!" Minty shouted over the cheers of the crowd. Then she turned to the crowd of fans, gamblers and dancers and shouted:  
"Well? Anyone out there wanna best the Mint Sisters!?"

More cheering from fans, chuckling from gamblers, and shy shrugging from other dancers who were afraid to try their luck.

Then someone shouted from the end of the alley:

"How about us!?"

The crowd silenced and parted to reveal three young adult girls walking in, wearing loose-fitting clothing that dressed to impress.

On the left was the youngest, a mint-haired cutie wearing a pink jacket, under which was a yellow shirt with a cupcake printed on the front, as well as tight black pants and pink-and-yellow sneakers. This girl had green eyes, and a face that could only be described as 'adorable'. She walked with a child-like spring in her step, something that would tell most people that she was a bit of a ditz.

On the right was a far more confident and adult-like girl with platinum blond, Chinese-cut hair and ice blue eyes. She wore large emerald green earrings that matched the strap of her vest that poked out of her very loose, off-of-the-shoulder, pink-striped shirt. Her denim-clad hips swung with an adult seduction that could make even some girls stare.

But the most impressive of the trio was the one in the middle. Hazel-brown eyes, long, mint-green streaked black hair, and a killer smirk. A loose magenta vest over a black shirt that left her bellybutton exposed. Loose brown tracksuits with green-rimmed pockets and striking pink shoes. On her wrist was a fluorescent, translucent green watch-band and her ears had pink pin earrings. She walked in a way that made people just KNOW she was the leader of this group, with a confidence that sprung out from her with each step.

"Sugar Rush." The dance leader on stage muttered with annoyance.

And the girls stopped in the middle of the alley, Snowanna snapped back into her announcer's voice.

"Well, well!" she announced. "Ladies and gentlemen, if it isn't the famous Candy Princess and her fellow Sugar Rushers!"

And the crowd went wild. Cheering, booing, 'oh'ing and 'ah'ing at the famous dance team.

"Heya Zaki!" the so-called Candy Princess shouted up to the stage. "Gotten beaten tonight yet?"

Minty smirked. "As it so happens, I have won every last battle so far, which I'm sure is more than I can say for YOU!"

"At least I haven't gotten arrested yet!" she answered.

"Oh, was that a confession to being a loser?" **[1]**

"Well, considering I've been busy helping my uncle in finding a job, that would be a no."

Minty Zaki laughed heartily, and her sisters Sakura and Torvald joined in.

"A loser girl from a loser family!" she shouted to the crowd. "And she thinks she can best me!?"

"Again, you mean?" the platinum-blond added.

The crowd laughed, and Minty's eye twitched as someone shouted 'BURN!' from somewhere.

"I've been studying your moves, _Princess_! I know how you dance! And your sloppy dance moves and sweet tricks won't help you this time, _Vanellope Von Schweetz_!"

The Candy Princess narrowed her eyes. Then she smirked mischievously, for there was one trick Sugar Rush had that the Mint Sisters didn't know about.

Then she spoke.

"Wanna put that to the test?"

"And win!?" Minty countered. The crowd cheered again.

"Taffyta, Candlehead," Vanellope said to her friends without turning her head. ", let's show 'er what we got!"

The trio stepped forward to where Snowanna stood between the centres of the stages, and the Mint Sisters climbed off to join them. They stood in line on either side of the announcer as she held the prize dish aloft.

"This game is pay-to-play, we all know this!" Snowanna shouted to the crowd. "Dancers, place your bets!"

"Seventy-five bucks!" Minty shouted immediately, without consulting her sisters.

Vanellope shared looks with her friends, silently agreeing. She turned to Snowanna.

"One hundred bucks, EACH!" she announced, to the 'oooh'ing of the crowd.

Minty narrowed her eyes. A bet like that, up against hers, was considered a challenge on these streets. Something to up the anti. A challenge she'd accept.

"Fine!" She glowered. "Three hundred for three hundred!"

"You're on!"

Snowanna held out the prize dish to let the money be placed before slamming the lid down, then the two teams climbed back onto the stages as Snowanna got into her position by a fold-out table, on which was her laptop that the music was on. Minty vanished briefly but came back with a determined smirk that Vanellope was ashamed to note almost matched her own.

The crowd closed in on the stages as the Sugar Rush dancers stood equidistant from each other and the stage edges, standing in epic poses and in line with the Mint Sisters.

"Let's see how good you think you are." Minty challenged.

"Oh, I'll show you." Vanellope chimed in. "Gladly."

"Dancers ready?" Snowanna shouted.

"Hit it!" the two dance leaders shouted simultaneously, and the announcer hit the play button.

 **[0:00]: Fall Out Boy – Light 'Em Up [2]**

 _~ Bam! B-a-am! Bam! B-a-am! B-a-am!  
~ Bam! B-a-am! Bam! B-a-am! B-a-am!_

Minty smiled. She and her sisters had practiced with this one.

 _~ (Oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh!)  
~ (Oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh!)_

And both teams started dancing, popping out moves to score points and try and beat the others.

 _~ B-B-B-Be careful making wishes in the… dark! (dark!)  
~ Can't be sure when they hit their… mark! (mark!)  
~ And besides, in the mean meantime,  
~ I'm just dreaming of tearing you apart!_

The Mint Sisters danced in step, drawing circles through the air with their arms as they half-mimed the song with their bodies. Minty was slightly more extravagant than her sisters, performing closer to the front centre of the stage, and making larger moves that told everyone who was the boss of the trio.

When the speakers shouted ' _mark!_ ', the three pulled back imaginary bowstrings and fired, earning their team three points.

 _~ I'm in the de-details with the… devil!  
~ So now the world can never get me on my… level!  
~ I'm just gotta get you off the cage! I'm a young lovers rage!  
~ Gonna need a spark to ignite!_

Meanwhile with Sugar Rush, Vanny, Taffy and Candy danced with their legs, stamping and swinging as they threw themselves in line around the stage. Vanellope remained aligned with her friends as the team continued to make their impression on the audience.

As the song yelled the end of the third line in that verse, the three leaned to the side one after the other in fake swoons, gaining five points for the trio.

 _~ My songs know what you did in the dark!_

Sugar Rush stopped briefly, tapping their feet. Then they exploded in dance as the chorus started up.

 _~ So light 'em up, up, up!  
~ Light 'em up, up, up!  
~ Light 'em up, up, up!  
~ I'm ON FIRE!  
~ So light 'em up, up, up! (Hey!)  
~ Light 'em up, up, up! (Hey!)  
~ Light 'em up, up, up! (Hey!)  
~ I'm ON FIRE!_

Sugar Rush twirled around, making claps with the beat, and stamped their feet as they continued dancing to the chorus. The Mint Sisters threw their arms out, pulling them back and extravagantly swinging them around with the music.

 _~ Oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh! (In the dark, dark!)  
~ Oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh! (In the dark, dark!)_

The first chorus was over, and the Mint Sisters were now in the lead by five points. Minty smirked at Vanellope, who simply smirked back; Sugar Rush hadn't played their trump card yet.

 _~ Writers keep writing what they… write!  
~ Somewhere another pretty vein just… died!  
~ I got the scars from tomorrow, and I wish you could see,  
~ That you're the antidote to everything, except for me! (me!)_

Sugar Rush danced uniformly, with simple hip-hop moves, earning points slowly, while the Mint Sisters threw out hip-busting moves that gave them tens of points advantage. Candlehead gave a slightly nervous frown, but didn't falter in step.

 _~ A constellation of tears on your… 'lashes!  
~ I'll burn everything you love then burn the… ashes!  
~ In the end everything collides! My childhood,  
~ Spat back out the monster that you see!_

Ten, twenty, thirty points ahead. The Mint Sisters were winning, and the leader kept shooting smirks at the Candy Princess. But the Sugar Rushes didn't stop going, nor did they make bigger moves, but all three of them smirked as the second chorus finished.

It was time for the secret weapon.

 _~ My songs know what you did in the dark!_

"NOW, Candlehead!" Vanellope shouted.

Candlehead leapt forward to the centre of the stage and the other two evened out further back to give her room as the youngest and least assuming Sugar Rusher started breakdancing.

 _~ So light 'em up, up, up!  
~ Light 'em up, up, up!  
~ Light 'em up, up, up!  
~ I'm ON FIRE!_

Like a pro, Candlehead twirled around on the stage, legs and the occasional arm flying wildly around as her friends danced more extravagantly than before behind her.

 _~ So light 'em up, up, up! (Hey!)  
~ Light 'em up, up, up! (Hey!)  
~ Light 'em up, up, up! (Hey!)  
~ I'm ON FIRE!_

Minty's sisters faltered slightly, mouths agape as the younger girl in front of them gave them a run for their money, literally, while the score shot up by a hundred in seconds.

Candlehead flipped herself into the air and landed herself on both feet and a fist, Iron-Man-style, and the crowd went wild as she re-joined the Sugar Rush in-line with the centre of the stage.

 _~ Oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh! (In the dark, dark!)_

Vanellope was pleased to see that Minty was fuming.

 _~ Oh, whoa, oh-oh-_

"Shut it off! SHUT IT OFF!"

Everyone started as someone suddenly shouted desperately from the crowd. A guy in the back pushed through the crowd to the stages. Snowanna paused the song and ran to him.

"What is it, babe?" she asked worriedly.

"It's the cops!" he shouted. "Someone ratted!"

The alley became a mess of people pushing to get out in to the side alleys, not to mention most of them muttering and wondering who sold them out.

On stage, the Sugar Rush dancers glanced warily at the crowd, Taffyta clenching her fists in anger.

"Oh no!" Candlehead cried. "I don't wanna get arrested!"

"I s'pose there's a first time for everything!"

Just then Vanellope noticed that all three Zaki sisters seemed surprisingly calm for such a situation, Minty's rage suddenly gone and replaced with a smirk. Understanding hit her like a speeding bullet, though without much of the shock.

"And sore-loser rats again!" She half-groaned.

"I was hoping to get the prize first," the dance leader said casually, ignoring the insult. ", but either way, you three losers go to jail, and I win!"

Taffyta began to launch curses at the sisters. Something along the lines of:

"You stinking, dirt-pile, rat-bag, CHEATING, MOTHER-F-"

"Save it for the sewer, Taffyta!" Vanellope cut her off. "We've gotta go, now!"

The three dancers leapt off the stage and began running for the side-alley they'd come from, near the alley entrance. The Mint Sisters reacted immediately.

"DON'T LET 'EM GET AWAY!"

The Zaki trio gave chase, though it was a very short one. The three Sugar Rushers made it to the alley right on time, Vanellope waiting for Candlehead and the two running after Taffyta just as police cars stopped at the entrance. Officers climbed out, guns raised, stopping the Mint Sisters in their tracks.

"Well, well." The Sargent said amusedly. "The Zaki sisters. Again."

"Oh, man." Minty groaned as she and her sisters were handcuffed for the tenth time that week.

* * *

"GO GO GO GO!" Vanellope urged Candlehead on as they neared the exit of the side-alley, where Taffyta waited.

"COME ON!" the platinum-blond yelled as the other two reached her.

Re-joined at last, the trio kept running down the second main-alley as they heard the cops' sirens wailing. Down another side-alley they ran, only slowing down as they reached the third one leading from the street.

The three smiled as they reached their beloved getaway vehicles, the tricked-out motorbikes they'd won in a dance battle nearly two years ago. They'd quickly made sure to get their licenses in time for High School graduation, and now they had three sleek, colourful vehicles to call theirs.

Candlehead's was painted like a chocolate cake, with a magenta-pink icing-like seat. Taffyta's was salmon, with a squeaky clean shine that made its surface slightly translucent.

And Vanellope's… well… looked as if she'd painted it herself. Which she had.

It had a messy purple top, and the sides were sprayed with an odd mish-mash of pinks, yellows and mint green, and the whole thing was covered in candy-like designs. Vanellope loved that thing.

Its colours made Taffyta squeamish.

The three kick-started their engines, and, with the classic roar of old 2020s electric engines, they rocketed down a third side-alley as police cars stopped by the main one's entrance. As fast as they could, the cops gave chase, following Sugar Rush from the main road as the escaping dancers bolted through the side-alleys, searching for a pathway to the opposite street.

"DEAD END!" Candlehead suddenly shouted.

The three looked ahead worriedly as they noticed the side-alley ended abruptly, potentially leaving them trapped.

That was when the leader (Vanellope) noticed an intersection with another main alley. Only this one led to the street opposite the one the cops were on.

"Or not!"

The three turned and drove down and finally out onto the street, joining with the traffic. They all panted as their adrenalin rush began to wear off, having escaped the gauntlet of alleys and the cops that chased them.

Then they all started laughing, and made careful high-fives as they rocketed down the street to their destination.

 **[2:41] Fall Out Boy – Light 'Em Up**

 _~ So light 'em up, up, up! (Hey!)  
~ Light 'em up, up, up! (Hey!)  
~ Light 'em up, up, up! (Hey!)  
~ I'm ON FIRE! _**[3]**

 _~ Oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh! (In the dark, dark!)_

* * *

 _~ Oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh, whoa, oh-oh-oh! (In the dark, dark!)_

Vanellope waved her friends off as she quietly crept her bike towards the garage.

She lived in a small house, one story, with two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a dinning/lounge room. It was all they could afford recently. Her uncle lost his job after being accused of breaking his boss' desk.

Well technically he HAD done it, but he swore it wasn't on purpose. Though with the ridiculous-level strength in his ham-hands it was hard to tell.

She opened the garage door and slowly wheeled her bike in. She tip-toed as she pulled it to the bike rack she'd bought, and carefully clicked the electromagnetic lock into place as quietly as she could, so as to not alert—

The door leading from the dining room slammed open, and she flinched, and turned to face her uncle.

"Hey, Ralph!" she greeted, trying not to look suspicious.

Ralph was as tall as he always was, with his massive hands and spiked-up auburn hair and brown eyes, which were currently death-glaring in her direction. He folded his plate-width arms across his red, tattered overalls as he frowned at her.

"You are in serious trouble, young lady." He growled.

"Seriously, Vanellope!? Again!?" he berated her from one side of the kitchen moments later. "You've been gone every night this month 'til nine, and your friends' parents are completely clueless as to where their daughters' are at those same times. You said you were checking out college choices! You said you had quit this!"

"Ralph, I HAVE been checking out colleges!" the raven-haired post-teen argued back from near the dining room entrance. "I've just been getting a bit distracted lately okay!?"

"Oh, a 'bit'! And I suppose these 'distractions' have nothing to do with last month, do they?"

"Nope, nothing at all!" she lied, though she knew immediately it wasn't going to work. "I am DONE with that dancing thing!"

"Then WHAT is it that you and your friends seem so keen on doing at this time of night!? EVERY night!?"

Vanellope opened her mouth to shout back, only for her words to catch in her mouth when she realised she had no actual answer. She shut her mouth and smiled sheepishly up to Ralph. He glared again and lowered his crossed arms.

"Oh come on, Stinkbrain!" she said. "It's not THAT bad!"

"Not that bad!?" he rebutted. "Dance fighting is illegal! You're gonna get yourself arrested!" **[4]**

Now it was Vanellope's turn to argue.

"Dance BATTLING is not illegal! BETTING on dance battling… that's… that's illegal." **[4]**

She pulled a left-over wad of bank notes from a previous battle out of her pocket.

"But it's so lucrative!" she continued, looking back up to her uncle. "I'm EARNING over this! I'll even be able to pay for college on my own!"

' _If I ever figure out which one to go to._ ' She thought glumly.

"I told you, I can pay for your college-"

"You can't if you're always losing your job because you keep wrecking everything!"

"I'm working on that! I've-"

"And besides! I haven't ONCE been arrested yet!"

Ralph frowned again at his niece for interrupting, not to mention at the proud tone she used.

"That doesn't mean you won't ever and it CERTAINLY doesn't mean you should keep breaking the law!"

"Oh, I'm gonna keep going!" she shouted back with a smirk. "I'm on a roll, uncle! And there's NO STOPPING ME!" **[4]**

"Oh yes there is. We're leaving!"

Vanellope stopped and stood with her eyes wide. She stopped pulling out arguments from her head and just stood there, trying to process what he'd said and respond to her panting uncle.

"Wh-what?" she asked at last, dread seeping through her system.

Ralph sighed heavily and rubbed his face with his nearly-twice-larger hand.

"I've managed to find a job." He answered. "It's run by an old friend of mine, he's happy to help me out at a time like this."

"Buuut?" Vanellope drew out with uncertainty. She was afraid of his answer.

"It's all the way in San Fransokyo." He finished.

Silence reined in the kitchen. Then…

"WHAT!?"

"I know it's difficult, but-"

"You said yes to a job from ANOTHER CITY!?" she screamed.

"It was the best offer I could find!" he replied. "Actually it was the ONLY offer I could find. It's not exactly easy to get a job when you essentially look like a red-necked Hulk!"

"Are ya' kidding, Stinkbrain!? You gotta try something else!" she yelled in exasperation.

"I can't." he replied. "I already booked the flight."

"D'YARGH!"

Vanellope turned and slammed her head onto the breakfast bar behind her.

"I've found a good apartment that'll be good enough until we can buy a new house, and I've contacted my friend to give me a call if there's any extra work I can do-"

"You're doing all of this to stop me going to dance battles, aren't you!?" Vanellope accused, turning back to him. "And because of it we're leaving the city, our LIVES, my friends! My bike can't go on the plane so I'll have to sell it! Everything, all of this gone because you don't want me DANCE BATTL-!"

She kicked the cupboard under the breakfast bar, and bit her lip as she immediately regretted it.

"Look," Ralph said after a moment. ", I'm sorry, Vanellope. But it'll get us out of this… mess that we've got ourselves in. I'll have a job, you can check out one of the colleges there, make some new friends. Everything will be fine."

Vanellope nodded, finally letting herself quieten down into a strangled silence.

"Who knows?" Ralph added. "Maybe you can go to SFIT and do some good."

Vanellope groaned and rolled her eyes, though Ralph couldn't see it.

"Just because I got straight A's in physics doesn't mean I want to go to a science institute." She said, having said it many times before. "I don't even LIKE science!"

"I'm nearly done packing." Ralph said, ignoring her one again. "You should too. Our flight leaves at ten tomorrow morning. I'll give you time to do whatever you need to do. With your bike… and all." He finished awkwardly, sending them back into the awkward silence their relationship seemed to entail.

* * *

Vanellope skipped dinner and headed straight to her room. Picking out a travel case, she began stuffing it with whatever she deemed worthy to take with her, before remembering that they were leaving permanently and she might as well be taking everything. She messily began piling everything in, not really caring for order. She really couldn't care less right at that moment. She just stood working in front of the bed, hoping absently that the one in the apartment would be comfy enough.

They both knew a move had been inevitable. It had literally been months since Ralph had lost his job, and the little family of two had been losing money fast. The fact that Ralph had refused to use Vanellope's dance battle winnings to help pay for the grocery shopping didn't help. They would have to sell the little house they lived in, most of the furniture, only taking along their few possessions to wherever they'd go.

But to another CITY!? Vanellope had been certain that THAT had been entirely out of the question! It was so unfair!

For almost as long as she could remember she'd lived in this city. Sacroshima had been her whole world. And it had been some adventure. **[5]**

Up 'til she was nine, she was bullied mercilessly by the other kids at school, led by none other than Taffyta, with Candice, a.k.a 'Candlehead', as her sidekick. Then Van'd finally told Ralph and the big guy had helped her through it. Turned out that it was the principle that was causing the whole thing, having some sort of a sore spot for the Von Schweetz girl, and when he'd been fired by the board for student harassment everything lightened up. Taffyta and Candlehead became her best friends, and together they'd formed a dance group at age fourteen, four years ago.

She'd nearly finished dumping everything she had into the case when she picked up the last thing left on her soon-to-be-former bed. Her phone. Her earpiece phone that had both of her friends' contacts on it. The one she'd used in the past to organise their little 'adventures'.

She looked at it curiously, then smirked as an idea came to her.

She briefly turned her head slightly to the door and, being quite enough so that Ralph wouldn't hear her, placed the thing in her left ear and voiced quietly:

"Message Taffyta and Candlehead. Subject: Next Gig."

* * *

 **[1] Just to make it clear, Vanellope didn't argue with Minty when she insinuated she'd lost any number of fights that night. Minty took that as a 'yes'.**

 **[2] Just so you know, I had NO IDEA how to write this dancing stuff, so if it seems like some of my worst writing; trust me, IT IS.  
Superhero battles are a piece of cake in comparison! Though that's not saying something, 'cause superhero battles are easy for me.**

 **[3] I like to imagine a high five on each 'Hey!'**

 **[4] Cool reference to original film is cool!**

 **[5] Keep in mind, fourteen years have passed, so she probably doesn't remember much from when she was little and played with Hiro and Tadashi in SF**

 **I chose the song because of the chapter title, which I chose because it described when what Van's doing, going out late at night and doing things she shouldn't.**

 **YEAYAH! Chapter 1! Not the most exciting chapter, especially compared to the prologue, but it's the beginning of some great things!**

 **Next Time: Chapter 2: New Competition**


	3. Chapter 2: New Competition

**DamnYouPeopleWithCoolUserNames: Yes and yes!**

 **iTotallyShipIt: Uh, have you thought of the idea that BHG and BH6 might NOT be set at the same time? This isn't a re-hashed origin story for the BH6! This is just Van's origin story. And looking at their age differences in the prologue, and knowing her age now, you should be able to figure out how long after BH6 this is set!**

 **Guest(s?): Calm down, dear! I'll update when I'm ready!**

 **SuperFan44: I DID watch YT vids for reference.**

 **DeafAngel2000: Thanks! And I followed your advice and looked up some things, found not a bad page on dance-writing, but even with that I'd have a hard time improving on my rubbish back there. Maybe I'll look at it if I ever need to write dancing again.  
Also, no, the principal is not this story's Big Bad.**

 **To everyone: Here's the thing guys: Hanaekaptr suggested some videos for me to watch for inspiration, and they were good, and worked, for without them I would never have figured out how to write the scene at all, but I just simply suck at writing dancing! It's as simple as that!**

 **Blimey, all this feedback and there's only been two chapters!**

 **Anyway! New chapter, new city, new characters, oh my!**

 **I'm so sorry for the wait! Hanaekaptr was drawing some sketches that I needed for some of the descriptions in this chapter. PLUS she was finishing the preview comic. But that's okay! Now we're here, we're ready, and we're PUMPED to give you this latest update to the story!**

 **Time for Sugar Rush to meet some competition. And what the heck, let's throw in a supervillain as well… maybe a superhero?**

 **Or six!**

 **Chapter 2: New Competition**

The next morning was tiring to say the least. Vanellope had to start by skipping breakfast, quickly drive to a shop to sell her bike, then catch a bus all the way home. But that wasn't all of it. She also had to help Ralph deal with setting the furniture, and the house itself, up for sale, not to mention handing it over to the estate agent to do it for them. Then all that was left was for the two to catch a bus to the airport, carrying their luggage with them.

The flight to San Fransokyo was short, perhaps an hour on the worst of days. In this case, the sixty minutes of boredom were something Vanellope could deal with, playing some old-fashioned game on her earpiece phone's mobile screen. Tetris, wasn't it?

Anyway, she would've been texting back and forth to Taffyta and Candlehead, who were back in Sacroshima planning a visiting trip to SF based on Vanellope's message, if it weren't for her enormous uncle sitting next to her.

It was kinda comical, really. The red-haired guy took up one-and-a-half seats, just from his natural size, which made the whole flight quite uncomfortable for him. The amusement came from the stares he got from other passengers, only deterred when he turned and asked them grumpily "What're YOU looking at!?"

Soon enough, the Hydroengine plane landed and docked at the massive San Fransokyo airport. The rest of the trip was as dull as the flight, as the two of them disembarked, grabbed their luggage and caught a cab to the apartment building.

The building was huge! Thirty stories tall, roughly circular with an average diameter of twenty meters, complete with furniture complete enough to support a family of six in a single apartment. At least, that's what it said in the brochure. **[1]**

Ralph did all the work in renting one of the flats, leaving Vanellope to wait boredly at one of the benches to the side of the lobby. It took some time, as Ralph had to somehow convince the receptionist that someone else was paying for it. Justified, as Ralph HAD stated his friend would be keeping them going 'til they could afford it. But soon enough the whole thing was over, and by 12:00, Van and Ralph were moved into room 97 on floor thirteen of an apartment in San Fransokyo.

The apartment took up only an eighth of the floor, but it was still pretty impressive. It had its own kitchen, as well as two bedrooms, one of which Vanellope found herself lugging her luggage into at eleven thirty. The rooms had faded-blue wallpaper, a white ceiling and a tiled floor in the kitchen and carpeted in the bedrooms. The beds, Vanellope was happy to find, were as comfortable as commercial living residences were allowed, and she knew she'd get a good night's sleep on it.

It would take some time to get used to the new accommodations, but they were certainly something she could live with. At least until they could afford a proper house.

Over the next few days, even more things changed. Ralph started leaving early to go to his new job, the nature of which he'd declined to tell his niece, while Vanellope did her best to try and look at college choices. Not that she could pay attention for long; the only ones Ralph had let her look at were all science institutions. She got bored stiff just looking at the SFIT homepage. In the end she just gave up and went back to practicing her dance moves.

Day in and day out, everything was the same. Ralph would leave at 6:00 to go to work, while Vanellope would sit around being bored all day, waiting for the text or phone message or call or whatever that would give her news from her friends.

Vanellope expected Saturday to be different. Her friends should be arriving early that morning, Ralph would be home, as, well, it was a weekend. After all, the only jobs that were usually active on weekends were shops and stores, plus the more shady ones, right? But no. Ralph was once again out doing who-knows-what job he had been hired to do by whoever idiot friend he had that didn't know it was a Saturday.

So there she lay, bored again, on her bed in her room, waiting for something interesting to happen.

Luckily for her, it was mere minutes before a beep from her phone told her she had a text message. She grinned when she saw she'd finally got a message from Taffyta.

- _We're here. Floor 10, door 76_ -

Vanellope's smile widened, and she hopped off the bed with energy and left the apartment with the knowledge that her friends had arrived. **[2]**

Out in the hall, Vanellope quickly ran over to the lift and set her destination to three floors down. Once there she quickly ran over to the door and knocked.

A few moments later, the door opened to reveal an ecstatic Candlehead.

"Hey!" the younger girl greeted.

"Hey, Candy!" Vanellope replied.

Candlehead moved aside to let her in, and Vanellope looked around the apartment, though there wasn't really much to see, since the place looked almost identical to hers and Ralph's. She walked through into what she supposed should be one of the bedrooms, which was in same place as the one in the other apartment, to find Taffyta sitting on the edge of the bed playing with her phone.

The platinum-blond wrinkled her face in disgust at something just as Vanellope entered the room, causing the raven-haired girl to stop and frown.

"What?" Vanellope asked her friend, crossing her arms and playfully smirking as she did. "My dress code too painful for you Taffy?"

Taffyta looked up and turned the phone around so she could look. She'd brought up her fashion blog, TiffanyTaffy, on which someone had posted a dress made with an eyesore of mixed-coloured fabrics in a patchwork fashion. Van and Candlehead made similar faces of disgust, the latter turning away and blocking the sight with her arms.

"I know, right?"

Taffyta turned off the screen and put the phone down, then looked back up to the other two.

"So, how're ya handling this place?" she asked Vanellope.

The girl shrugged, replying, "Well, you know how moving is. Getting everything out, getting it there, getting it in. Just boring and tedious."

"And what about SF? Found a boy yet?"

"Taffy!"

"Okay, okay!" she calmed, chuckling at Vanellope's reaction to her teasing.

Vanellope sighed in annoyance. Taffyta and Candlehead were her best friends; in fact they were her ONLY true friends, but sometimes Taffyta could be REAL annoying, always teasing her about never yet having a boyfriend.

Rolling her eyes and taking a breath, Vanellope changed the subject.

"Anyway, how was the flight?"

"Ugh! Uncomfortable." Taffyta complained. "Would it kill them to put ANY padding at all on those seats?"

"They didn't even have any video screens!" Candlehead whined. "Plane chairs are supposed to have those! Aren't they?"

The other two giggled at their youngest member's antics.

"Keep it together, Candy." Vanellope said. "You don't want Taffy to go all 'mother bear' on everyone, do ya?"

"Hey! That is a genuine worry!"

"So you guys really did move here?" Candlehead ignored Taffyta to ask.

Vanellope's smile dropped and she frowned.

"'Fraid so." She responded. "The good news is Ralph's apparently got a new job, so we're earning again, and we should be moving again in a month or so to an actual house."

"The bad news being that you're staying here." Taffyta finished.

Vanellope nodded.

"So… this is it?"

"No way." Vanellope said. "I say we keep going. In THIS city!"

"What!?"

"Come on, Van!" Taffyta objected. "We're just visiting! We can't stay here forever, our parents would kill us!"

"Why not!? You're both adults, you're legally old enough to move out! It'll be fun!"

"My mom worries!" Candlehead said with a nervous tone.

"Then call her and just tell her you're moving out!" Van suggested. "Call her every few days if ya have to!"

"We can barely afford this apartment as it is!" Taffyta challenged.

"Hence why we only ever go to pay-to-play battles!" Vanellope countered. "Besides! My allowance is boosted now, so I can guarantee that you'll be getting a little financial benefit from moi!"

"Just a little?"

"JUST a little."

Taffyta shared a look with Candlehead, somehow conversing without saying a word. After a bit, Taffyta sighed in submission and looked back at their leader.

"Alright, what's the plan for our next gig?"

Vanellope smiled widely.

"We'll sneak out tonight. I've been doing research during the week on dance battles, and I've found a particularly dodgy part of town that betters tend to go. They do EVERYTHING there! Dance battling, bot fighting, alley racing…" She listed off on her fingers. "You name it, they bet on it!"

Taffyta opened her mouth to say something.

"Don't even ask." Vanellope shut her up.

Taffyta and Candlehead shared grins and turned back to Vanellope.

"When do we start?" Taffyta asked.

* * *

The day wore to night, and the city of San Fransokyo lit up with dazzling colours. On the ground it helped people make their way around after dark, though it caused a hefty amount of light pollution. But if one were to go to the top of a tall building, or to the top of the mountainous slope the city rested on, the sight was sure not one to miss.

But in the dark, dank alleys of the city, the light did not much more than make it bright enough for people not to walk into walls.

The three girls of Sugar Rush walked alone though one of these sidestreets, with only Vanellope's phone map as guidance.

"So, you're sure this is the right place?" Taffyta asked Vanellope.

"That's what I've got here." She replied.

"Oh! I hear something!" Candlehead exclaimed suddenly and excitedly.

They stopped walking and stood to listen. Taffyta smiled, and Vanellope smirked back. Indeed they could hear metal music, coupled with the noise of cheering, booing and shouting emanating from somewhere nearby. If that wasn't a sign of a dance battle, they didn't know what was.

"This way!" Vanellope announced, and began leading them down a side alley towards the source.

Running out into the next alleyway, they entered into the crowd of San Fransokyans, all of which were cheering and shouting for, the trio were relieved to see, dance battlers.

Two teams were on the stages dancing it out, and one team was completely thrashing the other. The three girls on the other team were faltering in their steps at the others' elegant moves.

What dumbfounded Sugar Rush was that said thrashers were a trio of boys.

"Boys dancing?" Taffyta wondered aloud, as if the two things didn't go together.

Three, young adult guys were dancing, throwing off moves that otherwise would not have impressed Sugar Rush, but instead put them many points ahead of the girl team.

"You know, they're actually pretty good!" Van commented.

"Getting interested, Vanny?"

Vanellope pushed at the shoulders of her chuckling friend.

Pretty soon the song was over, and the girl team climbed off their stage in disappointment. An announcer climbed on the boys' stage and handed out the plate that held their winnings (more relievement for Sugar Rush), and the three held their arms high in victory, looking out over the cheering crowd, and allowing Sugar Rush to get a better look at each of them.

Standing on the left was a guy with tediously worked-on blond hair, looking out over the crowd with a charming smile. His ice-blue eyes contrasted his chocolate-brown hoodie and pale brown under-shirt, and he wore pretty average jeans that suited his look.

The man in the middle, obviously the leader, was the most enthusiastic about the win. He had green hair of a shade not dissimilar to Candlehead's, and his eyes were brown. His naturally-tanned face was similar to the guy on to the left of him, with the same nose and same shaped eyes. He wore a blue hoodie over a sky-blue T-shirt, and yellow shorts.

And the guy on the right kept to the darker parts of the stage, a small smile made for the victory. He had short, straight black hair and orange eyes, and wore an orange vest and black tracksuits. Around his waist he'd tied a dark brown leather jacket, on his hands he wore black fingerless gloves, and hanging from his neck was a metal tag on a necklace that seemed to have some sort of symbol on it, though it was hard to tell from the distance the girls were at. **[3]**

The Sugar Rushers stepped forward as the announcer began to call for new challengers.

"Any volunteers!?" the girl with the eye patch and carrying the tray shouted.

And in response Vanellope shouted her usual attention-grabber.

"How about us!?"

The crowd once again parted and the dancers on stage looked down to see Sugar Rush looking determinedly up at them, all three smirking.

"Hi!" Candlehead shouted comically when no one else said a word. **[4]**

The green haired one in the middle stepped forward and smirked back.

"And you are?"

Vanellope's smirk dropped a bit. She'd briefly forgotten that they weren't in Sacroshima anymore. No one knew who they were, so their usual arrival wouldn't make the same impression.

At least, not yet.

"I'm Vanellope." She introduced. "This is Taffyta and Candlehead. We're the Sugar Rush dance team from Sacroshima!"

The crowd stared for a second. Then, to the girls' dismay, every single one of them starting laughing.

Loud, boisterous and mocking laughter erupted all over the alleyway, from the crowd, announcer and dancers.

"What kind of names are they!?" someone shouted.

"Stupid names!" someone else replied.

"Beat it, losers!" the announcer chuckled at them. "The Swizz are the best dancers this side of Japafornia! There's no way you'll beat them, experienced or not!"

Now it was Taffyta's turn to laugh.

"They're called The Swizz!?" she giggled.

But Vanellope ignored the joke, and shouted back at the woman.

"I'll have you know, we're the best dance battlers in all of Sacroshima!"

"Oh are you now?"

All three girls looked up to the stage to see it was the blond-haired guy who'd spoken.

"Yeah!" Vanellope shouted back. "THE best! And I'm sure we could beat you like THAT!" she snapped her fingers.

The green haired guy smirked down at her.

"Wanna bet?"

"Shouldn't be too hard to win!" Taffyta joined in. "I'm surprised boys can even dance!"

The crowd roared at that, mostly 'boo'ing her comment. Vanellope turned to Taffyta with a disapproving expression, an eyebrow raised.

"Bit much?"

"You challenged us, and I say we accept that challenge!" The blondie said. He turned to the green-haired one next to him. "What do ya' say, Swizzle?"

"I agree with you, Rancis!" the green haired one replied, then turned to the shady black-haired one. "Gloyd?"

Vanellope elbowed Taffyta, who was trying her hardest to stop herself from laughing loud enough for the nearby street to hear at the ridiculous names of the male dancers. But as she looked up to the stage at the last one, her friend's compulsion to laugh left her in an instant as she saw the cold look at the last of the boys.

The dark haired dancer named Gloyd frowned down to the three girls of Sugar Rush, scanning them and assessing them with his eyes. After a moment of looking, though, he turned to his friends and spoke.

"Let's see what they're made of."

Swizzle smirked down at the trio of girls and said:

"You just made yourselves the WRONG rivals, girls!"

"We'll see about that." Vanellope muttered.

The Sugar Rushers smirked once more as they stepped toward the stage to begin.

* * *

Five blocks away, a figure crouched on the edge of a building, watching the night-light of the city glow beneath him. The figure's expression, if it could be seen behind his near-black visor, was that of an awed smirk as he scanned the buildings around him. He'd been up this high, and way higher, many times before, but the sight never ceased to be amazing. Especially in one of the most brightly-lit cities in the world.

Still watching the city, though now focusing on the task at hand, he held a hand up to his helmet and activated his communicator with the press of a button.

"Disk, got anything?" he asked in his surprisingly light voice.

After a moment, a woman replied on the other end.

" _Negative. I'll call in if I see him._ "

Then someone else joined in on the conversation.

" _Are you sure he'll be here?_ " a higher-pitched woman asked. " _If Krei's secretary is correct, he'll have already stowed the generator away._ "

"But that doesn't mean he'll have delivered it to his boss." The suited man replied.

" _Yeah, one key thing in comics is that the bad guy's first move is usually to go straight to their master._ " An American man added. " _But Cybug's smart. He's definitely hiding first, THEN coming back for the tech._ "

"Keep on lookout." The figure ordered. "He's gotta show up at some point."

" _You know, if we'd actually called it in yesterday, we'd've gotten there sooner, and we could be relying on Rocket's scanner right now._ " an African-American guy complained.

" _I thought we could take him!_ " the higher-pitched woman argued back.

"Plasblade, even if you HAD called it in, Cybug would've been gone long before the rest of us had got there! The others would've been too late anyway!" The guy reasoned. Then he hesitated before adding. "And… the professor kept me in to fill in for a lecturer."

" _What was it on?_ " the higher-pitched woman asked.

"Some of Plasblade's old tech, actually. Remember that experiment on high-force, low-energy motors?"

" _Wish I didn't._ "

" _Alert: I have detected a humanoid figure moving above the speed limit._ " A robotic, yet strangely human, voice suddenly spoke up. " _The subject is male, and is flying above the street. I have detected a metallic suit of armour._ "

Standing up to his full six foot height, the figure turned his smile into a frown as he spoke into his communicator.

"Where to, Rocket?"

" _Fifth Avenue, on a course intersecting your position._ "

"Disk?"

" _Already on it!_ " the woman shouted with excitement as she launched from her position on Sixth.

"Chemi? You ready?"

" _Heading for a new position, six blocks away on your seven._ " The higher-pitched woman answered.

" _I'll head out to join you!_ "

"Zilla, hold where you are!"

" _Really?_ " the American man asked. " _I kinda stand out in this crowd!_ "

"Crowd? What crowd?"

" _A bunch of people betting on some sort of dance fight! Highly entertaining!_ "

The man ran back to the middle of the building and turned to face Zilla's position.

"Everyone keep their act together!" he ordered. "Civilians are in play!"

And with that he ran forward, pressing a button on his belt as he did. As he neared the edge of the building, he leapt, and his boots glowed as ion engines kicked into action. With a mighty blast, the figure cleared the whole gap and landed on the other side, and proceeded to skate on the thrust of his hoverboots across the next roof.

" _Copy that, Blast!_ " Disk replied to his order.

* * *

Drivers and pedestrians alike were startled by the supervillain racing down Fifth Avenue at 40 metres per second, in a hurry to get to his destination.

He had gunmetal grey round-shelled armour, with plated shielding on his limbs leading down to the black claws on his boots and gauntlets. On his back were two sets of glowing green wings, each beating at thirty times per second to hold him off the ground and keeping moving at such high speeds. And on his head he wore a plated helmet, complete with a bright green bug-eyed visor that kept his face hidden.

Zooming through the city, he held tightly to the package in his arms, a bag containing the fruits of his theft from Krei Tech Industries the previous day. He was so focussed on not letting go and on where he was going that he didn't notice the whirring noise behinds him until something big and red shot past him.

He flinched as a massive, red, carbon-fibre fist plunged into the wall of a shop on the roadside. Turning his head back, the supervillain scowled as he saw what was chasing him.

A massive robot in a red suit of armour was flying after him on large red wings. Covered in carbon-fibre armour-shells, with purple plates encircling its 'stomach' area and a purple light shining from the centre of its chest. Its legs were stumpy, and ionised gas jetted from the soles, keeping the superhero flying fast. At the right of its chest-plate was a large button, and its gauntlets had only three, black-armoured fingers. And its helmet was tinted with a visor, with twin fins on either side.

The robot's right arm was held out in front of it, the stump smoking before the fist magnetised back to its starting position, still fully clenched.

 **Rocket**

The supervillain growled, then turned back to face his direction of motion and accelerated, turning a corner at the end of the street.

The robotic superhero returned his arm to his side and jetted after him.

The cat-and-mouse chase continued as the two turned off onto the highway, disregarding traffic lights as the hero tried to catch up to the villain.

After a few minutes of this, Cybug turned to check out his progress, and laughed mirthfully as he saw Rocket lagging behind him.

Suddenly something whacked him from the side and sent him off course. He took a few moments to stabilise in the air before continuing forward and looking back to see where the projectile had come from.

Skidding and sliding along the sidewalks raced a woman in a yellow suit. It was very complex, covering most of her body like Iron Man armour, though her carbon-fibre gauntlets were fingerless, and her leggings didn't quite reach her torso, exposing the black undersuit she wore. Her helmet was tinted, and built to be streamlined, extending out the back in a crest. She hovered from the ground, held up by two large wheels from which she hovered, and hovering from her right gauntlet was a large yellow shield, not unlike that of Captain America. Everything in her suit was powered by the generator in the centre of her chestplate, though its red light was hidden by the bandolier across her chest, which held and powered a set of three, much smaller disks.

Using a car as a ramp, she jumped up into the air into Cybug's trajectory as she summoned her thrown mini-disk back to her bandolier.

 **Disk**

Landing on the rail of a fire escape ahead of him, and still moving fast, she grabbed a charged mini-disk from her bandolier and threw it back at the villain. Seeing it coming, Cybug dodged this time and jeered at her. Holding his arm out, he activated his primary weapons, a gun hidden by his plated gauntlets. Grinning at what he was going to do next, he fired the gun with the press of a button in his glove.

But Disk knew what a supervillain aiming a weapon looked like, and as she jumped to the next fire escape she raised her shield, holding it up in protection. The fired bullets slammed into the shield and ricocheted off with significantly less force, falling harmlessly to the street below.

She jumped off and onto the street as he kept firing. But between holding the bullets back and keeping track of the road, she was having to concentrate harder than she could handle.

She needed backup.

Looking up to the roof of a particular building fairly far ahead, she smirked as she realised she was in the right position to receive said backup.

"Plasblade!" She called into her communicator. "Tag in!"

As they neared the building, yet another hero jumped from the roof into the path of the villain, screaming wildly. His armour was in parts, with a torso and gauntlets of teal-green carbon-fibre, and a teal light at the middle of the chest plate. The gauntlets reached over the back of his hands, and his suit below left his fingers exposed. Instead of a helmet he wore a simple tinted visor-microphone combo that blocked his eyes from view, and his baggy blue pants flared in the air as he fell towards the supervillain.

 **Plasblade**

He stopped screaming as he landed on Cybug's back, sending the bad guy off balance. The over-weighted villain thrashed wildly as Plasblade grabbed onto his back to hang on tight. The villain's wings struggled to compensate, and lifted them high into the air above the city.

Regaining what balance he could, Plasblade let go with one of his hands and held it back, activating his gauntlet. A blade made of glowing blue plasma flashed into existence out the end, and he yelled as he swung forward, slicing clean through the wings on Cybug's back.

The wings rocketed away, and as a result sent the villain and the hero flying straight down into an alleyway. Plasblade jumped just in time as the bad guy dropped below the roofline.

* * *

The Swizz were good. As in INCREDIBLY good.

It was neck-and-neck for most of the entire song as the girls faced off the boys. Then Candlehead had made her move, and Sugar Rush had gotten ahead by a hundred.

The all of a sudden, the quietest of the boys, Gloyd, jumped forwards and breakdanced the proverbial rug from under Sugar Rush's feet, pushing them ahead of the girls by thirty.

For the first time in four years of dance fighting, Vanellope was nervous that they would lose.

"LOOK OUT!"

Someone's shouting completely distracted everybody, and Sugar Rush looked up to see something big falling right towards them. Vanellope and her friends jumped out of the way, just in time to avoid being crushed by the bulk along with the stage below them.

Vanellope carefully looked up from her position on the ground to see the devastation. The stage had been demolished, shattered in a crater around the alley. No one was injured, but everyone seemed pretty shocked and surprised by this sudden event.

Then her eyes widened as something moved in the rubble. Something pushed its way out of the broken wooden planks, and the supervillain stood up to his full six foot height. Then he turned to look and see the assembled crowd staring, and Vanellope froze in fear at the sight of his visor.

Then he looked up with realisation and looked around the demolished stage, as if he was looking for something. Failing in that, he yelled up to the sky, and when he finished his eyes landed on the crowd. Then he growled, and raised his arm, activating his gun and preparing to fire at them all, starting with Vanellope.

He was going to kill them just because he couldn't find… something.

"Hey, Cybug!"

Everyone looked to see where the slightly muffled voice had come from, just as something else leapt out from the crowd, high into the air, and came falling feet first towards the supervillain.

It was obviously a suit, but it looked like a weird blue creature with three eyes. The lower two seemed to be frowning, while the upper one was crowned with two sets of horns sticking up. There were three claws on each foot, four on each hand, and a long, spiked tail reaching out behind him. There was a mouth below the eyes, where the thing's stomach should be, with four 'teeth' pointing in around it. And the strangest things were lines of flame erupting along its arms and back, giving an appearance of power, while looking awesome!

"GRAVITY CRUSH!"

 **Zilla**

Zilla crashed into Cybug from above at high speed, collapsing him back to the ground before the superhero jumped off. Sailing through the air, he dug the claws of his suit's hands and feet into the wall as he hit it. He let go with one hand and turned to look back down to the now furious supervillain below.

Cybug raised his gun, firing it at Zilla, only for the bullets to be blocked. A large pink bubble materialised around Zilla, shielding him from the projectiles, sending them bouncing off. Cybug growled again and turned to look up to the top of the building at the alleyway's end.

Standing on the roof was yet another hero. This one, a woman, wore a pink carbon-fibre miniskirt over her black suit, complete with a tough, red, chestplate-generator. Her boots were extended tall, essentially more stable high-heels, and her belt held a pocket for chemistry equipment. Attached to her back was a tough, yellow back-pack that connected via a tube to what almost looked like a large, yellow, carbon-fibre purse. Except THIS perse had a scope attachment, a heat-shaped button screen showing a periodic table, an extended muzzle and a trigger, like a weird-shaped gun. And her tinted helmet had two large buttons around the ears, stemming off which were two fin-like antennae.

 **Chemi**

The bad guy aimed his gun again, only this time something blasted it off his wrist. He stared at its broken holster and turned to see Rocket hovering in the air, Disk's thrown wheel on one hand and Plasblade holding tightly to the other. Plasblade's other arm was outstretched and balled up in a fist pointed at Cybug, the muzzle of the gauntlet above his hand still smoking from firing the plasma blast.

The superhero combo drifted down to land in the middle of the crowded alley, Plasblade dropping to stand beside the robot. Disk wheeled her way into the sidestreet to join them on Rocket's other side, thanking him as he returned her missing disk.

"I recommend that you stand down." Rocket spoke to Cybug in a calm male voice.

Zilla took the moment to punch out of the pink bubble and jump down to the other side of Cybug from the others. Chemi joined him, throwing a blue-green sphere down, which burst into an elastic blob, and she bounced off of it as she fell, breaking her fall.

"I suggest you listen to the guy!" Zilla said.

Cybug growled yet again as the five big heroes surrounding him revelled in their apparent victory.

But Cybug smirked; he still had one trick up his sleeve. Literally.

The five superheroes barely noticed as Cybug suddenly threw a bomb to the assembled crowd, and Disk only just managed to jump in front of it with her shield raised before it exploded, stopping anyone from being hurt, but sending her flying backwards into the tarmac from the blow.

Cybug took advantage of the momentary distraction to turn and fire a rocket from his remaining glove-gun at Zilla and Chemi, making the heroes have to jump out of the way to avoid it, though the explosion still sent both of them flying into the walls. Then he ran at the crowd, grabbed a random civilian, who happened to be Vanellope, and pulled her back from the crowd. Rocket and Plasblade raised their arms to fire to Cybug, but he held the gun to her head and yelled:

"Shoot and she dies!"

Both of them hesitated, then lowered their fists, glaring at the bad guy.

"Now let her go." Plasblade raised his hands in a calming manner.

The villain's exposed face below the visor smirked evilly.

"Actually, I think not!"

And he pressed the fire button.

Vanellope waited for three painful moments as she anticipated the loud CRACK that would signal her demise. Then she carefully opened her eyes. She was still there. She wasn't dead. Why wasn't she dead?

Cybug stared at his gun, then pulled the trigger again. Still nothing. Getting even more agitated, if it was possible, he frowned and pulled the trigger again and again, trying to get it to work.

Then, to add to his fury, a humoured laugh came from the top of the alleyway on one side.

"An electromagnetic field strong enough and with the right polarity and direction to cancel out that of your rail gun." The voice of a young adult male said. "Neat, huh?"

Cybug shouted in anger and threw Vanellope to the ground.

"Show yourself, hero!" he shouted out. "Come out and face me!"

"With pleasure."

And then, the figure who previously stood above the city jumped off the side of the building and, just before he hit the ground, activated his hoverboots and blasted across the sideroad to collide with the villain. He slammed into him with his shoulder, sending Cybug flying backwards into the wall.

Vanellope looked up to see the man standing protectively in front of her. Six feet tall, and wearing a high-tech, purple coloured suit of armour, with a carbon-fibre chest plate, helmet, gauntlets and boots, on top of a black suit of a similar carbon allotrope. A red light glowed from the middle of the chest plate, powering the gloves and shoes through the red conductors that ran down his sides. At his waist was a belt holding a number of buttons and pockets, and his helmet was similar to Chemi's, but in purple.

 **Blast**

Cybug practically screeched in anger as he stood up to fight back, but Blast held up is own fist and a laser blast shot from the back of his gauntlet, sending Cybug careening back into the wall. Acting quickly, a now-recovered Chemi raised her purse-gun, pressed a few buttons and fired, encasing the armoured supervillain in a sticky substance that quickly solidified to hold him tight.

The six big heroes stepped in front of the downed supervillain, aligning between him and the crowd of people still in the alley, standing triumphant.

"Big Hero 6." Cybug grumbled in annoyance.

"Who will do the honours?" Blast asked his fellows.

Rocket, who stood behind him, turned to look at him and pointed his right index finger into the air.

"I believe it is : your turn."

"Thanks for keeping track, big guy."

Blast reached into one of his utility belt's pockets and pulled out a pair of handcuffs as he stepped forward to the trapped supervillain.

"Cybug," he said with authority. ", you are under arrest for the theft of a tritium-ion generator from Krei Tech Industries, as well as any number of crimes you've committed in the past."

Vanellope pulled herself to her feet and watched the six weird people arrest what she could only assume was a supervillain. She was still doing so when Candlehead and Taffyta ran to her sides, worried for her.

"You okay?" Taffyta asked.

"Yeah." She replied without hesitation. "That guy didn't hurt me."

All three girls looked back at the six colourful people in armour, interested as they watch them stand around the bad guy.

"Who are they?" Candlehead asked with wonder and a tiny bit of nervousness.

Vanellope didn't answer immediately, but when she did she was absolutely certain of her answer.

"Superheroes." She realised. "I think they're superheroes!"

"That's bad."

"Wait, what?" she turned to Taffyta.

"Vanellope, they're working for the police, which means they're gonna arrest all criminals in the area, which includes US."

"Oh, that's right!" Candlehead chimed in.

Looking around, Vanellope noticed that most of the crowd was still there. In fact only three people were missing: The Swizz.

Traitors.

Vanellope managed to snap herself out of her stupor and turn to her friends.

"Which means WE better scram."

They turned to run back to the side alley to escape, with bad timing. At that moment, three police cars parked in the entrance of the alley, one of them blocking their route into the undercity.

All three girls breathed the same thing.

"Crap."

* * *

 **[1] Might I just say, I have no idea what sizes and shapes and how well equipped apartments are these days, so I just made this stuff up for this future-set story**

 **[2] Just imagine apartments in the year this is set can also be used as hotels for relatively poor people**

 **[3] My character descriptions must get pretty boring after a while, eh?  
Welp, too bad! They're gonna keep coming 'til I run out of characters!**

 **[4] Kinda Dory-esque moment, eh! Hana's suggestion! Fits with the character!**

 **Another LOOOONG chapter! Made the superhero battle so long I had to move the end of the chapter into the next.**

 **Not my best writing I think. But that's just me! Make your own decision whether or not I'm agood writer!**

 **Next Time: Chapter 3: Villains, Jails and Schools**


	4. Chapter 3: Villains, Jails and Schools

***Procrastinating* mustdoexamrevisionmustdoexamrevisionmustdoexamrevision**

 ***notices readers/audience/hanaekaptr***

 ***clears throat***

 ***whistles* The number of reviews I got for that last chapter! Blimey!**

 **Emeraldalex123: Wait, so the identities are confusing but great? Thaaaanx?**

 **Dragonridr55: I know, right!? Fourteen actually, but the point still stands!  
Oh well, I'll rectify this soon enough…**

 **DamnYouPeopleWithCoolUserNames: Thank you so much! And as for pairings, I've currently only got Vaniro planned, but we'll see. There may be something I can do with the epilogue.**

 **SuperFan44 and Hamadabrosrule: Firstly, they aren't arresting the betters (more on that in this chapter), and secondly, they don't work for the police, that was a basic assumption most average people (Taffyta) would make.  
The BH6 work WITH the police, not FOR them. They're independent, but often team up with or follow directions from them on missions. They also need to come into contact when the villain or group of criminals is arrested, so that happens. More on that in this chapter!**

 **Also, SuperFan, I'll just remind you from chapter 1:  
** **"** ** _Dance battling is not illegal! BETTING on dance battling… that's… that's illegal._** **"** **  
Vivian 'Vanellope' Von Schweetz**

 **Number One Otaku: Thank you for your praise!**

 **Samtastic V2.0: Thanks. Me neither. I will!**

 **I'mjustgonnasay: Thanks. I was just worried people got bored, as did one reviewer of a certain chapter of my Snow White story. That chapter had roughly eight descriptions in it before the halfway point, and someone complained. Not gonna say who, 'cause you can check that out for yourselves.**

 **Someone (guest): Sorry, but I'm not taking suggestions. This story is already completely planned out, and I'm not changing a thing unless it's necessary or either me or Hanaekaptr get an idea.  
Besides, why would Hiro just take the girls with him? He barely remembers her! It's been fourteen years!**

 **Once again, I'm sorry for the wait, though it wasn't as long as last time. This time I had exams, so my time was being spent on maths revision. And let me tell ya, when you're doing the level of maths I'm doing, you NEED the revision!**

 **Anyway, we're back! Here we go again with another chapter, and this story just keeps getting better and better!**

 **This time, some stuff on the police, the BH6's roles, Vanellope in prison and, you guessed it, SFIT!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **Chapter 3: Villains, Jails and Schools**

It was official. This was the worst night in Vanellope's life.

As soon as the police had turned up, they'd ordered all civilians to keep to the back of the alley and out of the way. So far they didn't know about the dance battles, but it wouldn't be long before they did. Vanellope and the other Sugar Rush girls leaned against the back wall of the alleyway as they waited for something to happen, hoping that no one would realise what was going on.

Vanellope's mind, however, was on the strange group that had just trashed their battle and saved their lives from a supervillain. Six, differently coloured people in weird suits of armour, one of which was too big to even be human and another that just looked like some weird creature, each with different equipment and weapons. And what's more, they were apparently superheroes.

What's more, Vanellope couldn't help but notice that one of them kept on turning his head to look in their direction. It was hard to tell because of the visor, but it looked like the purple-suited hero was looking at HER! How much crazier could this night get?

Apart from being arrested for the first time ever for betting.

And BOY she was annoyed at The Swizz. They'd just run off and left everyone else there to be arrested! At least this time they hadn't been called in.

Meanwhile, the group of police officers were working on moving an incapacitated Cybug to one of the police cars, Plasblade having sliced through the back of the chemical-cage beforehand. Now, Blast, Disk, Rocket, Chemi, Plasblade and Zilla watched from the sidelines as the policemen pulled the armoured supervillain towards a police car.

Blast kept turning his head toward one of the civilians they'd run into. Was it just him, or did she look familiar?

"Big Hero 6!"

All six turned at the shout to the person who'd called, the chief of police. A blond-haired woman with an impressive build wearing a police uniform stood by one of the police cars, arms crossed, holding a hologram-tablet (a miniature computer with a tiny projector lighting up an attached piece of glass into a screen) in one hand. Her blue eyes' expression was neutral, but her mouth was frowning at the team of superheroes. That didn't bother them though, 'cause she was ALWAYS frowning. **[E1]**

"Here we go." Disk muttered.

"I'll deal with her." Blast assured before walking towards the sergeant.

Meanwhile, Chemi looked back over to where the civilians were as something from earlier clawed at her memory.

"Zilla?" she turned to the blue monster suit. "Didn't you say something earlier about gambling?"

"Yeah, they were betting on what team would win this sick dance fight they were having." Zilla replied. "One of the teams' gone now, but you can still arrest THOSE guys."

Chemi giggled slightly at her friend.

"I'm not gonna arrest them, I'm just gonna question them." She corrected. "The POLICE will arrest them."

While Chemi moved off toward the assembled crowd of civilians and the remaining four moved to help the struggling police officers with Cybug, Blast stopped in front of the police chief.

"Sargent Simmons!" he greeted.

"Good job, Blast." She said in her naturally loud and authoritative voice. "Cybug's been a thorn in our side for a long time."

"How long've you been after him?" the superhero asked.

"More years than I care to count."

"Who is he, anyway?" Blast looked back to where his team were moving the bad guy.

Simmons unfolded her arms to fiddle with the tablet, which she then handed to the hero leader with the police file of the supervillain brought up.

"Darren Larrix." She answered. "He used to be in the black market business, drug dealing and cigarette manufacturing. Then two decades back he moved on to theft and mercenarism. Thirteen years ago he went off the grid, and back then we had no idea why. We still don't. And now his return has given us a bit of a scare, 'cause it means whoever his boss was before is probably back too." **[1]**

Zilla, who'd been listening from the police car as the police put away the supervillain, looked up at this.

"Oh yeah!" he shouted in excitement. "New bad guy!"

Sargent Simmons ignored him and continued speaking to Blast.

"You and your team did good. Think you can get him to tell you who he's working for?"

"That's YOUR department." Blast handed back her tablet.

Then Simmons looked past him and noticed where Chemi was.

"What's that about?" she asked.

The purple-suited superhero turned to see where she was looking.

"I dunno. Some sort of dance fighting competition." He answered, turning back to Simmons. "Zilla reported betting."

Simmons nodded in understanding, knowing what she had to do.

"Alright, Purple, you and your team turn in for the night." She ordered. "We'll take it from here."

"Yes ma'am." Blast saluted her.

"Don't do that."

Blast spoke into his communicator. "Chemi, we're out. Rocket, prepare for carrier mode."

On cue, the big red robot moved to the clear pavement in the centre of the alley, and the other five teammates assembled around him. Blast, Chemi and Disk climbed on his back, while Plasblade and Zilla climbed onto his down-stretched arms. But before Rocket could take off, Blast turned back to the sergeant.

"Oh, and one more thing:" He said. "Cybug was carrying a bag earlier, with a tritium-ion generator inside it. He dropped it somewhere when he was in the sky and we didn't see where it fell."

Simmons nodded.

"Don't worry," she assured. "We'll find it."

Blast nodded.

And with everyone securely held on with magnets, Rocket blasted up into the sky and away from the scene.

Meanwhile, Simmons motioned to her fellow officers to arrest the dance battlers.

"Markowski! Kohut!"

And Vanellope winced and swore again as the police officers converged on the crowd.

* * *

Once at the SFPS (San Fransokyo Police Station), the police put each and every one of the betters in the crowd into cells. Or, more accurately, they put them all in ONE cell.

As everyone who'd been in that alley was over eighteen, there were no minors to separate out, so the police just opened the door to the adult holding cell and shoving them all in. Vanellope hoped they would at least sort them into at least semi-separate cells later, because the crowding… well, crowd was starting to become obnoxious.

Shouting, chatting, even MORE betting, and not to mention everyone's body odours mixing and the bunch of people who were pressed up against her, the combination of which was REALLY uncomfortable.

Eventually, to Sugar Rush's relief, the crowd was sorted and separated and spread amongst the fifteen empty cells in the below-ground floor, with the three dancers managing to get placed in the same one. There wasn't much in it, just a tap for drinking water and a few wide benches that Vanellope supposed were to be used as beds.

Three girls said nothing as they sat down on one of the sterile benches. Candlehead looked nervous, while Taffyta and Vanellope both frowned. Taffyta was clearly angry, but Vanellope was deep in thought, her mind once again on a certain bunch of superheroes. The sergeant called them the 'Big Hero 6', didn't she?

And a weird bunch they were, too. Firstly there was that green guy with the blasters. Then the pink-dress girl with that strange chemical gun. Then that weird creature thing, probably a suit, who could jump high and climb walls. The big one in the red suit seemed to be a robot, and that yellow woman was a weird Captain America expy crossed with a tricked-out motorbike. Van could admire that.

And the man in the purple suit, with the blasters in his gauntlets. He kept on staring at her, as if… well, she couldn't be sure, especially with the visor in the way, but he seemed to recognise her? Which was weird, since she'd never seen him, or any of his team before. Maybe he'd been to one of their gigs out-of-suit in Sacroshima and had been surprised to see her here?

' _Was he looking at… ME?_ '

"Do you think-"

"Don't talk to me."

Vanellope turned her head to see Taffyta still frowning, looking pointedly away from her with her arms folded.

"Are you angry with me?" she questioned her.

"Well it IS your fault."

"My fault!?" she shouted, taken aback.

"Yes, your fault!"

"How is it MY fault!?"

"You convinced us to keep going in this city. If we hadn't been out there tonight, we wouldn't have gotten arrested."

"It's not MY FAULT that a SUPERVILLAIN who was being chased by a team of superHEROES happened to crash into the same alley WE were in!"

"QUIET DOWN IN THERE!" one of the police guards shouted, and she immediately shut up.

"I'm just saying," Taffyta said after a moment, "You could'a just accepted the idea that this was over."

"Over, shmover!" Van retorted. "Why would I give up!?"

"Your uncle got a freaking JOB! You don't need to do this anymore!"

Vanellope's expression turned incredulous before she replied angrily again.

"THAT's what you're angry about!? Me moving to another city!? 'Cause that's DEFINITELLY not my fault!"

"We were having fun! Every night, running around the city, dancing and earning, then BAM! Out of the blue you say 'We're moving city'! You couldn't have given us something in advance!?"

"It WAS out of the blue! Ralph had already booked the flight! Didn't even tell me!"

"Ya couldn't've stalled it or something!?"

"What was I supposed to do!? Cancel the flight, find his new boss' number and tell him 'sorry, but because I have friends and am very, very selfish, we are staying in Sacroshima for a few days so we can run out of money, sorry for the inconvenience'!"

"And then when we DO come over for what we said was a VISIT, you drag us off to try and continue this in a city we don't know, without anyone knowing who we are, with our parents not knowing WHERE we are, and if THAT wasn't enough, there's freaking team of SUPERHEROES we have to worry about!"

"That's not my fault!"

"STOP IT!"

Both Taffyta and Vanellope turned at the distressed outburst from Candlehead to see their youngest friend looking stricken. Tears welling in her eyes and some snaking down her face, staring horrified at her two friends who'd just been in an all-out argument. Candlehead turned away and sobbed as Taffyta moved closer and wrapped a comforting arm around her.

"Happy now?"

Vanellope turned her head to the floor. She didn't have the heart to look back at Candlehead now, nor the courage with Taffyta in 'mother bear' mode.

Luckily for her, or unluckily depending on your point of view, at that moment Sargent Simmons returned to their cell and opened it.

"Come along, Miss Von Schweetz." She said to the girl. "Your uncle's waiting."

Vanellope nodded and stood up, walking slouched toward the exit to the cell. As she reached the bars, she turned her head back to her friends.

"I'll get Ralph to get ya out, kay?" She promised.

"Save it for the sewer, _Vivian_." Taffyta spat, stressing her real name.

Vanellope sighed and stepped out, and Simmons followed after locking the cell again.

"So, what was THAT all about?" the sergeant asked her curiously as they walked through the cell hall toward the lifts.

Looking up, Vanellope noticed that the sergeant was perhaps a foot taller than her. Though that might've been 'cause she felt rather small in the high-ranking officer's presence, especially after what just happened.

"Nothing important." Vanellope said glumly.

"Anything to do with shouting is important, kid." She told her. "What? Lovers' spat?"

"What!? NO!" Vanellope groaned. "Taffyta's not my girlfriend! I don't HAVE a girlfriend! Or a BOYfriend for that matter."

"Hmm." Simmons mused. "Well, sounded to me like you have some sort of an issue with her then-"

"She's just upset." Vanellope clarified. "This is kinda the first time we've been arrested and she's penning it all on me. Uncle Ralph got a job, we moved here without notice, now Taffy's angry and I'm gonna have ta wait 'til she's no longer in 'mother bear' mode before I can talk her down."

"Taffy?"

"Short for Taffyta, her nickname."

"Huh."

By this point the two had entered the lift and Simmons had pressed the button to ground floor.

"Well," she said as the two stepped out of the lift again and into the lobby, "You've got some serious making up to do the next time you see her, which, if her parents don't bail her, will be in about six months."

"Six months!?" Vanellope exclaimed quietly. "Six months for betting?"

Simmons nodded.

"It's a serious crime, kid." She told her as they left the building. "Honestly, I think it warrants seven or eight, but I'm not the law. I just enforce it."

"Vanellope!"

The girl winced and stopped as she remembered and noticed her mountain of an uncle walking towards the two, his thundering footsteps making more intimidated and guilty per step. She sheepishly raised a hand slightly and waved.

"H-hey, Ralph!" she greeted awkwardly.

"I warned you!" he said, stopping in front of her. "I told you! I said you'd get arrested! But did you listen!?"

Vanellope just lowered her head in shame, and to her relief Ralph noticed and stopped.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She answered. "A lot's going on, that's all."

"Good." Ralph voiced his relief, then turned to Simmons, whom he towered over. "Thanks Tammy."

Vanellope looked up, surprised.

"Ugh!" the sergeant groaned. "Don't call me that!"

"You know each other?" Vanellope asked, intrigued.

"Surprised you don't remember me, Short-Stack!" the sergeant said, looking down at her.

Vanellope squinted at the older woman for a moment, trying to get some vague recognition out of her. She found it.

"Aunt Tamora?"

"Haven't seen you in fourteen years, kid." Tamora confirmed, smiling at her.

"Auntie Tamora!" Vanellope shouted and hugged her tightly. Tamora just pat her head, slightly uncomfortable.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" she shrugged her niece off of her.

"You're a policewoman?"

"Last I checked." She joked. "Good job, ya get to go out and give those who disregard laws and public safety a piece of your mind!"

"You and those heroes."

Tamora scoffed.

"Vigilantes, more like." she said. "We tolerate them, so long as they handle the situations and bad guys we can't. But if they start putting away common criminals, it's the jail cell for them." **[2]**

Then Sargent Tamora said something Vanellope didn't expect.

"You know, you should give the job a go. We're hiring."

"Wait, me?"

"Yeah, you."

"Me, who just got imprisoned and bailed, work for the police?"

Tamora nodded.

"You'd be surprised how many police officers started their job after giving up crime." She told her. "Even some vigilantes start off by doing things much worse than what they do now."

"Listen, I'd love to stay and chat, but I need to take her home." Ralph interrupted rather quickly, looking sternly down at his niece. "We need to have a serious talk about her behaviour."

"I'll leave that to you, Ham-Hands." Tamora said. "Good luck."

She turned to look down at Vanellope as she moved back towards the police station.

"Nice seeing ya again, kid!"

Vanellope smiled and waved her off, before Ralph grabbed her and pulled her back to where he'd parked the rented car.

"Come on!"

A few minutes later, and they were already halfway down the road to the highway that would take them home, and Ralph hadn't said a word. Vanellope looked back and forth between him, the road ahead, the moving city out her window and her feet as she tried to work around the awkward atmosphere.

Twice now she'd opened her mouth to say something, then close it again when she couldn't figure out what to say. In the end it was her uncle who spoke first.

"No, I am not bailing your friends."

Vanellope looked back up from her feet at this unexpected conversation-starter.

"Wait, what?"

"You've spent enough time with those girls if they're pulling you into this."

"Ralph!" She shouted. "This isn't their fault!"

"No," he agreed, "It's all of your faults, and you've been going off their example."

"WHAT!?"

"You need some time to settle and figure out what to do with your life." Ralph reasoned.

"Are ya kidding me!?" she protested. "This has got nothing to do with them! _I_ started the dance group four years ago, Taffy and Candy just wanted in-"

"Look at yourself, Vanellope!" he nearly yelled. "You're going out, into the night, dancing and betting and doing who-knows-what because of them, while you should be doing something with your life!"

"D'YARGH!" she shouted in annoyance and slammed her head back into the car seat. "Would ya just listen!? They—and this—this IS my life!"

"You need to go to college!"

"Look, I've been searching through every one of those stupid websites, but none of them are interesting to me, okay?!" she complained. "I'm not interested in 'pursuing a career in engineering', or 'advancing the exciting world of quantum physics' or whatever! I can't STAND science! It's just not… me!"

Ralph sighed. He slumped back in the too-small seat and thought for a moment. Then he slowed down and moved into the turning lane, which, Vanellope noticed, didn't lead to a street that led to the apartment.

"Uhh, where are we going?" she asked.

Ralph just smiled.

"Nothing on the websites ever seems interesting." Ralph agreed. "The best way to get interested is to go and see what they do for yourself."

Vanellope groaned as she realised he'd barely heard half of that rant, as they drove off down the street and headed for the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology.

* * *

SFIT was huge! The university spanned more than half a kilometre in width and length, and was filled will lots of large buildings. Passing the big, lit-up sign with the name and symbol of the institute emblazoned on it, the two could see the big square-area administration building, twenty metres across with two tall towers connected by an arch, with offices off the sides. The building was a plaza, with the halls circling around the gardened area, and the actual reception office at the middle of the back of it.

Ralph drove the car past the building, turning to the left to park in the car park. Then Vanellope followed Ralph out as the big man walked all the way up the driveway to the administration building.

About a minute later, she and Ralph finally entered the doors into the well-lit reception office. Vanellope looked around boredly at the tan-brown walls as the two approached the front desk, where someone in a lab coat was chatting with the receptionist.

There were bits and pieces of things around. A few pot plants, some inventions, applications of physics and chemistry, photos of old prize students… but so far nothing to make Vanellope interested in this place.

"Not impressed yet, Stinkbrain." she deadpanned.

"Just save your insults while we're here, okay, Vanellope?"

She rolled her eyes at him.

At that moment, the receptionist pointed the approaching two out to the other person, who turned and smiled, revealing them to be a woman of about thirty, with shoulder length brown hair, blue eyes and a pretty, oval-shaped face. She smiled a genuine smile at the two as they approached, and moved to meet them halfway as they reached the desk.

"Hello!" She greeted, reaching out a hand for Ralph to shake. "I'm Professor Abigail Callaghan, the headmistress of the school."

"Ralph." The big man carefully shook her hand without crushing it. "This is my niece, Vanellope."

"What can I do for you?" Abigail asked.

"Vanellope's having trouble figuring out which university to go to."

As much as Vanellope was annoyed with the situation, and with Ralph himself, she had to admit, that much was true. She nodded when the professor looked to her for confirmation.

"I've heard that SFIT is a highly prestigious college." Ralph continued. "I was hoping I could show her around, see if I can spark an interest, if that's okay with you?"

"Yes, that would be fine!" Professor Callaghan looked back to the big man. "Most of the buildings are closed at this time of night, but the robotics lab is still in use by some of my students working on their mid-semester projects. It should be fine if you give them a visit."

Ralph smiled.

"Perfect!"

"Happy to help!" she replied. "Allow me to lead the way. I need to head back to keep an eye on them anyway."

After briefly saying farewell to the receptionist, Professor Callaghan led them out the doors again and back out the entrance to the building's plaza, and they followed her as she turned left and began walking down to driveway to the robotics lab.

The trio stepped over the crest of the hill, and Van and Ralph's jaws dropped when they saw the building below.

Shaped like a submarine and jutting out of the hill below them was a building made nearly entirely of glass panes. Four stories tall, seven metres wide and at least twenty from entrance to the back, next to a square-shaped lit-up glass-walled office, and a grey-painted pergola sheltering the double-door entrance. The surrounding lawns and driveway was empty, but shadows could be seen beyond the glass, inside the quad-floored robotics lab.

"Whoa!" Vanellope breathed. Even if she didn't end up going to this school, it was still an impressive sight.

They followed the Professor to the doors, Vanellope briefly stopping to admire the large sign labelled 'Ito Ishioka Robotics Lab' and the SFIT symbol next to it before they walked through into the grey halls of the lab, surrounded by trans-opaque walls, some of which were currently transparent, allowing Vanellope to see in to the students working inside.

The Professor gave them the tour, talking about the lab and what they did there, before she led them through a door into a large lab area, where a number of students were, for lack of a better term, playing with their projects.

These projects ranged from levitating food trays to someone perfecting an actuator for a walking robot. There were more than just robotics projects though. There were a number of chemists in the vicinity, and there was one guy working at a computer which was wired into a small tree. What he was doing, Van had absolutely no clue.

Professor Callaghan led them over to where a young adult of about Vanellope's age sat at a desk, back facing them, wielding a soldering iron and a facemask and working on some small square device. A multitude of other similar devices were scattered on the table, piled up on the side opposite her.

"Sticky!" Callaghan called to the student, prompting them to turn and look up at them.

"Sticky?" Vanellope asked. What was with this city and weird names?

"Fred comes up with the nicknames." Was Callaghan's only explanation.

The student removed the mask as the three reached the desk. She was a woman with dark brown eyes, fair skin and teal-dyed hair. Actually, she seemed to be a big fan of teal, considering she wore a teal jacket, short teal dress, teal leggings and a teal bow on a headband, with the only think of a different colour being her yellow shirt she wore under her jacket.

"Hi!" She greeted.

"Hey!" Van replied as she stopped walking in front of her.

The Professor moved to stand next to Sticky, placing a hand on her shoulder.

"This is Stella Wipplesnit," She introduced her, ", though thanks to our school mascot we know her as Sticky. She's my second-top student here, one of the brightest people me or my father have ever taught."

"What's your major?" Vanellope asked.

"Electronics." Sticky answered, turning around and beckoning her over to the desk. "I'm working on robotic enhancement."

Vanellope stood next to Sticky as she picked up the square-thing she was working on. On closer look, Van could see it was fairly blocky, and had various cubic structures sticking out. It was black, and covered in black-outlined circuits.

"This is a microcomputer." Sticky told her. "Just smaller than any invented before. I got the idea from the invention of microbots."

"What does it do?" Van asked.

"They're for usage in large machines; mechs, submarines, remotely-controlled machines, things like those.

She lowered the microcomputer and began to explain.

"You see, robots of a certain size have two major flaws: They move REALLY slowly, and their response times could be improved upon. One of the main reasons behind this is that they're only controlled by one large central computer: their 'brain'. They're like most animals in this respect. Humans, frogs, whales, dinosaurs, most animals rely on one main brain in their head. However, octopuses have eight smaller brains, one in each tentacle. That's how they can use all their limbs independently in ways we can only dream of!"

She held up the microcomputer again.

"With these things placed in the limbs of a giant submarine or mech the robot will be able to work much faster because it'll have a separate computer controlling each part! Plus it'll have extra processing power 'cause it'll be shared throughout the computers. Imagine the possibilities! Rovers on Mars or Venus or subs in Europa's oceans will be able to do their jobs much faster, increasing their data gathering tenfold! Robots designed for disaster relief could be used to prevent building collapses before they even happen!"

"Whoa!" Vanellope breathed in genuine amazement.

Vanellope had actually understood everything Sticky'd said. She may not be very much interested by science, but she was certainly smart enough to understand it. A-level.

The thing that really caught her attention was the mention of disaster relief. A robot being there to keep buildings standing and save lives. Kinda like another robot she'd seen that evening.

"What about those six weird heroes?" she asked. "Don't they do that kind of thing already? Stop buildings from collapsing?"

Sticky smirk at the mention of San Fransokyo's resident superheroes.

"Yeah, they're not bad at that." The electronicist answered. "Rocket, their robot, does its best to hold buildings up while the others can get everyone out, but its only slightly larger than a person. With something BIG holding it up, the building wont collapse at ALL, and it'll make their job WAY easier." **[3]**

Vanellope nodded in understanding. Sticky smiled and chuckled slightly before saying:

"Hey, thanks for listening."

Vanellope was confused as to why she'd say that, but went along with it.

"No prob!"

But Sticky continued. "Thanks, really. It's not often I get to rant on about my projects."

"How come?" Van asked, sitting down in a nearby chair.

"Students here tend to focus on their own projects, plus most of them tend to leave us stuck-up top-dogs alone."

Vanellope nodded. "You and that other top student?"

"Yeah, me and the one everyone here knows as 'the Inventor' are often left to ourselves. Fair enough for HIM, he has friends who used to go here, plus he's got Fred, our school mascot. But me? I've ONLY got Fred."

Vanellope nodded and looked down to the table, drinking it all in. She had so many questions, though not about the school or robotics as Ralph intended. 'Who is Fred?' was a good one, though she had something else to ask first.

"So, who's 'the Inventor'?" she turned to Sticky once more.

"Apart from the smartest person on Earth?" she responded, smirking. "Not to mention the guy who invented the microbots the Professor's dad tried to use to take out Alistair Krei with five years ago."

"Wait, what?"

Sticky chuckled.

"That gets the same response from everyone from outside the school." She said. "It's surprising how much people don't know about Abigail Callaghan, despite the fact that it was all over the news that she'd been presumed dead for three months."

"Tell me everything. What happened?"

Sticky turned to her and told her the story.

"Krei was running this experiment." She told her. "Top secret of course, no one knew what it was 'til it was revealed after the attack. And he was using Abigail Callaghan as a test pilot. Anyway, she was presumed to be killed in an accident, so her father, the then-headmaster of the school, was hell-bent on revenge. Meanwhile, this kid-genius enrols, showing off his microbots at the student showcase, which inspire Mr Callaghan with just what he needs to deal with Krei. So at the end of the showcase he took the microbots and burnt the showcase building to hide the evidence, accidently killing the boy's brother in the process."

Vanellope gaped slightly in horror, enwrapped with the story as as the other girl continued.

"So then Callaghan's dad built a portal from the same tech that was used in Krei's experiment to destroy his building and take him with it. Pretty dramatic, huh, killing Krei by irony. Luckily that was when the Big Hero 6 showed up."

Vanellope frowned at the mention.

"The rainbow-crew?"

"Yeah." Sticky chuckled at the description. "That was their first battle. They defeated Mr Callaghan, rescued both the Professor and Krei and took down the portal."

"Huh." Vanellope looked down, thoughtfully. "And he did this using the microbots 'the Inventor' created?"

Sticky nodded. "He himself isn't a bad guy. He's stubborn, snarky, VERY intelligent, and pretty much runs his own projects here. He's been on good terms with the professor since she took over her dad's role four years ago. You might like him."

"Where is he now?"

Sticky pointed back out into the hallway, to door across from the lab.

"Normally he's in there, working on whatever he's working on. He's not in there right now, but he'll be back in a minute or two. You could wait for him in there."

Van looked over to where she'd last seen Ralph, and was pleased to find him conversing with the Professor, have clearly gotten bored by Sticky's and her chatting, paying absolutely no attention to his niece. He wouldn't notice if she… wondered off…

"Thanks." She said to Sticky, standing up.

"Nice chat." Sticky smiled. "See ya round?"

"Hopefully!"

Sticky turned back to her project smiling, while Vanellope carefully made her way back into the hall, making sure not to do something sudden that would attract Ralph or the Professor's attention. Not that she could, with Ralph's back to her and Callaghan's view blocked. Turning back to where she was going, she stepped in front of the door and pushed it open.

'The Inventor's lab was spacious, and closed off from the rest of the building. It seemed to be at the back, 'cause all the walls were grey, not glass, with the only window being the porthole-shaped one at tother opposite end. The lab was filled with desks and benches, with a number of 3D printers and computers, flat-screen and holographic, based on these desks. A red box-thing sat under the window, facing her.

She looked around the lab, looking up at the rows of lights shining from the walls and ceiling. The roof was gridding, just like she'd seen from the hilltop, with vents and airways snaking along the curved surface.

She was paying so much attention to this that she didn't notice the pile of small black objects sloppily piled on the floor in front of her until it was right under her feet. **[4]**

"WHOA!"

She slipped on the round-shelled things, tumbling to the floor, landing hard on her knee. Groaning, she rolled herself over onto her back to sit up, and gingerly touched the pained bone.

"Ow!" she gasped.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Whiirrrrr…

"Huh?" she mumbled, turning toward the source of the noise.

Then she stopped and stared.

Standing where the red box had been was a tall, overweight looking… thing. It had white 'skin', stumpy legs, round, three-fingered hands, and a bulbous head with a simplistic face, merely two black eyes connected by a black line.

The thing waddled toward her, and she inched back from it. Not just because it was a weird robot with intentions she didn't know of, but because it looked slightly familiar, and that scared her.

Her eyes widened as she slowly recognised it.

The thing stopped in front of her, raised one of its arms and waved down at her.

"Hello." It said in a calm male voice. "I am Baymax, -"

Vanellope opened her mouth and screamed loudly before it could finish.

* * *

 **[E1] EDIT 28/01/16: So, Hanaekaptr just brought to my attention a device which Hiro is holding in one of the screen-tests for BH6, which basically looks like an ordinary computer-tablet, but it has a sheet of glass attached to it. It's not a classic hologram, but it's a realistic one.**

 **[1] I'm gonna imagine that cigarettes were outlawed in Japafornia by 2029, twenty years before this is set. Also, 'mercenarism' basically means he was a mercenary. The word isn't in my computer's dictionary.**

 **[2] Vigilantism is a criminal offence in most countries. Any civilian carrying out law enforcement or trying to arrest criminals without permit by the police or government can be legally jailed. Self-defence doesn't count.  
Though, a 'vigilante' is also a civilian who carries out the law WITH legal authority, like the BH6 for example, but it's often used to mean those who don't. **

**[3] The course is 'electronics', so a scientist in that field would be an 'electronicist'**

 **[4] Just so you know, these are microbots. I'll explain in the next chapter.**

 **So, introducing Sargent Tamora Jean Simmons, nee Calhoun. She's Felix's wife, Ralph's sister-in-law and Vanellope's aunt. Why I chose the surname of 'Simmons' for Ralph's family? Don't ask. The only answer you'll get is IHNI (I Have No Idea).**

 **Also introducing Professor Abigail Callaghan, former pilot and scientist for Krei Tech Industries and daughter of former-professor Robert Callaghan. She's far less important to the story than the Sarg, but she shows up a few times.**

 **And finally, introducing Stella 'Sticky' Wipplesnit, a highly esteemed student at SFIT. She's about as important as Callaghan, so don't get used to her.**

 **Trivia: I was looking up images of the robotics lab, then I found the perfect image and literally had a moment just like Kristoff's in** **Frozen** **when I looked at it. It looked SO beautiful with its glass walls and round and futuristic design I thought I might cry!**

 **Yikes, that was a long chapter. I think too much happens in it, and the writing at the very end is sloppy, and Van's a bit OOC while she's talking with Sticky, but those are just my opinions.**

 **Next Time: Chapter 4: Hiro Hamada**


	5. Chapter 4: Hiro Hamada

**REVIEW REPLIES:**

 **SuperFan44:  
Ooh-hoo-hoo, Sticky aint no OC! She's Sticky Wipplesnit, the second recolour of Minty Zaki, one of the 15-16 racers of Sugar Rush!  
Thanks for the support!**

 **RainEpelt:  
Yeah, Jelsa is NOT one of my ships *cringes at the thought*.  
I prefer Jackunzel for Jack and IceBreaker for Elsa.**

 **Guest:  
No…  
It's clearly stated in the movie that it's a university of technology. Hiro just happened to get in BECAUSE he was a genius.**

 **Emeraldalex123:  
Yeah, I was actually kind of sceptical when Hanaekaptr suggested the idea and when I wrote it down, but now you put it that way… it makes perfect sense!**

 **AirFireWaterEarth:  
1\. I wouldn't go so far as to say 'recognise', more of a nagging at the back of his mind at a forgotten memory. *giggles as Inside Out references suddenly come to mind*  
2\. I only briefly mentioned Honey as one of Tadashi's friends; She's probably only ever briefly met Vanellope once, at her parents' funeral. So no, she wouldn't remember her.  
3\. Vanellope is one year minus two weeks younger than Hiro, and when the story starts Van's already 18, so I think at the point the story kicks off in ch1 their birthdays have both passed a while ago. **

**Krypie: Keep your hair on! Aerrow's on the case!**

 **Msfrostx: Don't thank ME, thank Hanaekaptr on DeviantArt! This is her idea! I'm just writing it out (with a plot that I made up, but that's besides the point!)! Still, thanks for your support!**

 **AUTHOR'S INTRO:**

 **I actually don't have much to say apart from thanks for all the support! Both here and on DVA!**

 **With that done, I say, enjoy!**

 **Chapter 4: Hiro Hamada**

"AAAHHHHH!'

The white blob's head jumped back in surprise as Vanellope suddenly screamed. Vanellope stumbled backwards in her sitting position from the big squishy thing that had just called itself the name of her old plush toy. Sure it had been fourteen years since she'd seen it, though she was sure she'd given it to someone, but she was CERTAIN that this Baymax was even SHAPED like her Baymax!

Then the thing spoke again in its calm male voice, but no mouth moved, creeping her out.

"You appear to be : distressed." The white 'skinned' thing surmised, briefly pausing throughout the sentence. "I recommend taking : deep breaths."

But Vanellope was hardly listening to what it said, just continually hyperventilating and blabbering meaninglessly.

"Wh-what the!? What are you—Wha!?"

The thing didn't seem to register her incoherent question as speech, and Vanellope's distress only worsened as it began stepping towards her again.

"Let me help you count to ten." It said.

"N-No!

Vanellope only saw the creepy thing moving even CLOSER towards her, and began shuffling back from it as it started to count to ten. She moved backwards, but it kept moving towards her. She moved further and further back, but it kept following her with its creepy walk, wobbling from side to side and not making any change in expression to appear friendly at all.

Vanellope jumped as her back hit something, and she found she couldn't mover back anymore. With horror, she realised she'd backed into the closed door, or rather, the _thing_ had backed her into the door! She could barely do anything but cringe as the white thing came closer and closer, and her fear built up tremendously.

Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and she jumped up onto her feet and past it, ignoring the jarring pain in her leg to make it through the closing gap between the thing and the wall, and run to the other side of the lab.

She turned to look back, only to see the white thing STILL walking towards her, looking just as creepy as when she'd been much lower down. It raised its right index finger in the air, then said:

"I would not advise you to run. I cannot guarantee : you will not get hurt."

Anyone in their rational mind would see that it was trying to help, but all Vanellope's clouded judgement could tell her was:

' _That THING is trying to GET ME!_ '

Now thoroughly freaked out, Vanellope dashed around him again and made for the now unobstructed exit to the lab.

Unfortunately she didn't notice the door opening as someone else burst in.

"Baymax! What's going o-"

"Watch out!"

The white thing's warning came too late, as Vanellope ran literally head-to-head into the person who'd just walked in, and subsequently rebounded back to the floor.

Her eyes were closed, but she saw stars. Her head ached, she could feel her messed-up hair interacting with the cool sweat on her face, and her limbs splayed out on the ground. She carefully pushed herself into a semi-sitting position, groaning as her head protested the movement, which she then rubbed with the hand that wasn't supporting her from the floor.

After a moment, she registered someone saying "Are you alright?" and she gingerly opened her eyelids to stop her head from exploding from dizziness.

Then they shot open as her vision centred on the big white blob.

She shot backwards into a sitting position, shouting nonsense.

"THAT—TH-THAT—A-I-WHA—IT'SALIVEANDBIGANDHUGE! HOWISTHAT—WHA-OOooohhh!" she yelled at whoever it was that was in the room with her and the thing before collapsing backward, propping her arms back to stop her from hitting the ground again.

"Okay! Calm down! Take a breather." she heard said someone tell her. "Breath in… and out."

Nodding carefully, she followed his directions, barely registering the white blob counting to ten for her. After the tenth time, and a moment to settle, she suddenly found her vision quite clear, her hearing less like she was underwater, and her newfound headache dying down slightly.

"You okay now?"

She looked up to the new, male voice coming from the other person in the room. What she saw was a man, slightly older than her, kneeling in front of her with the light above the door lighting him up from behind. He was handsome, half Caucasian and half Japanese, with mid-length black, spikey hair springing up all over his head. He wore a blue hoodie over a white-collared red undershirt, cargo pants and white sneakers. His left ear was pierced with two black rings, his teeth had a prominent gap in the upper row, and his thick eyebrows and brown eyes frowned down at her in concern.

She froze, looking up at him. Something about his face jogged something in her memory. Was it just her, or did he look slightly… familiar?

Then he tilted his head towards her, the change in her visual sense bringing her back to the present, making her realise that she was staring. She shook her head slightly to clear it as much as she could, then answered his question.

"Y-yeah, I'm okay."

"Are you sure?" the guy asked. "You just hit your head!"

"I'm fine, really, thanks." She answered back, though not maliciously.

The guy stood up and held out his hand, which she graciously took and let him pull her back to her feet.

She immediately faltered as pain shot through her knee, and the sudden movement caused her brain to ache again. She moaned, cradling her injury. She didn't' fall, but she was still glad for the four arms that had jumped into position in case she had.

Wait. Four?

"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" the robotic male voice asked.

And sure enough, her eyes followed the two, white and bulbous arms to the white blobby thing, or 'Baymax' apparently, looking at her, its ovular head titled in concern.

"Uhh… what is he?" she asked without turning back to the human guy.

"I am Baymax." Baymax answered before the guy could. "Your personal healthcare companion."

Vanellope couldn't help but giggle a bit at the innocent-sounding robotic voice when he said that. The guy joined in a bit, chuckling.

"My brother made him." The guy said. "He wanted to help a lot of people, so he built something that could."

As she watched, the thing, that was clearly a robot as she could see now, tilted his head up and down as if nodding.

"Scan complete." It said.

Its, or his rather, stomach area lit up with a screen, showing a diagram of a female human, highlighting her knee and her head.

"You have light bruising on your : forehead and : right knee." Baymax informed her. "I recommend putting : ice packs on your : sore spots."

"A robot nurse?" she wondered aloud, slightly critical, still looking at Baymax.

The guy chuckled again.

"Better than the things _I_ used to make!" he said. " _I_ used to make fighter bots!"

"Would you like me to cool down your : sore spots?" Baymax asked.

"You can do that?"

"I can cool down the surface area of my : palms into : ice packs to cool down a : sensitive area." He informed her, before repeating, "Would you like me to cool down your : sore spots?"

Vanellope smiled slightly at the robot. He was a lot less scary than she thought. In fact, he looked kinda cute.

"Yeah, thanks."

Baymax helped her carefully step around the still-scattered black things on the floor and lead her to a wheelie chair positioned at one of the desks on the left side of the room. Then he placed one hand on her sore knee and her head and indeed lowered his temperature to a point where she could feel her injuries calming down. She smiled in spite of herself with the realisation that the robot she'd just run from was actually helping! And this guy's brother built him!

Speaking of 'this guy' she turned her head under Baymax's cool hand to address him.

"So," she said, ", you're 'the Inventor' Sticky told me about?"

He nodded, smiling.

"Yeah," he replied. ", people call me that."

"What's your name?"

He started to step towards her…

"I'm—WHOA!"

…only to slip on the scattered black round-shelled objects Vanellope had slipped on in the first place. Vanellope giggled at him as he wobbled around on the things like an inexperienced person on a tightrope, before gently pushing aside Baymax to carefully stand. She stepped around the things and grabbed his flailing arms to help him steady himself, so he could safely step back onto the solid ground around him.

"Thanks." He said, smiling at her. Then he held out his hand.

"Hiro." He introduced. "Hiro Hamada."

"Hiro?" she giggled at the strange name. "What kind of a name is…"

She stopped short, trailing off as another memory hit her. She'd said that before, a long time ago? How? When? Why?

She looked at the guy, at his familiar face. Was it… older than it should've been?

"Hiro?" she muttered.

The guy frowned at her in confusion. But then, after a moment, his face lit up with realisation, and he stared back at her, gaping slightly.

"Vanellope?"

The girl's eyes widened at him, the person that had just said her name. How? He couldn't have known her! They'd never met before! Had they?

' _Hiro Hamada… What kind of a name… He knows me!?_ '

Then the flood gates opened in her memory. A memory of whole year, so long ago she could hardly remember it. But there was one constant in that year, one person that had been with her that whole time. The tooth-gapped kid known as…

"WHOA!" She yelled ecstatically. **[1a]**

"VANELLOPE!?" Hiro Hamada yelled in surprise. "Wha!? WOW!"

"It's you! It's really you!" **[1b]**

"What are you doing here!?" he asked. **[1a]**

"What do you mean 'what am _I_ doing here', what are YOU doing here!?" **[1a]**

"You, you moved to Sacroshima!" he clarified. "What are you doing in San Fransokyo!?"

"My uncle had job issues, and we had to move back!" she answered quickly, completely forgetting about the depressing aspects of that for the moment. "But what about YOU!? You go to the Institute!? YOU'RE that kid genius!?"

"YEAH, I mean, I know right!?" he fumbled slightly as he replied. "I checked this place out five years ago, and I enrolled! Vanellope, this place is amazing! They do all kinds of stuff here!"

"Yeah, I've seen! Your professor showed us around the rest of the lab! She showed us to Sticky, and _she_ showed me her project on microcomputers and what she could use them for, but she also told me about you! You're the top smart-ass here, aren't you!?"

"Yeah! It's… a tough place, but I've learnt SO much stuff here!"

"Your neurotransmitters are : elevated. This indicates that you are : happy."

Vanellope turned to look over her shoulder at the Baymax robot once again. More memories opened, of her little plush toy that she'd given to Hiro, and something about building a robot.

"So you actually went and did it!" she realised. "You built an actual robot Baymax!"

Baymax titled his head and spoke before Hiro could reply.

"I do not understand. Is there something else called : Baymax?" he asked curiously.

Vanellope mentally questioned the fact that a robot could feel confusion or curiosity before answering:

"Oh, I used to have a toy I called Baymax. I gave it to Hiro before I left with my uncle." Then she turned to her old/new friend and asked, "You kept that thing for fourteen years?"

"Yeah, I s'pose!" he smiled while answering. "I actually forgot I had it for a long time, but then Tadashi found it while we were cleaning out the garage when _he_ started here, and at the time he was having trouble thinking of a design for a medical bot that could do its job and wasn't scary or dangerous. So when he found Baymax, he got the idea to build something huggable."

Vanellope turned to gape at the robot again.

" _Tadashi_ built this?"

' _You actually went and did it, didn't you._ ' She thought.

"Yeah! He always wanted to build something to help people, ever since he first thought of going here. Took him a while, plus eighty-four _hilarious_ testing videos, but he finally did it. He showed me him when I was in a bad spot, and I was so inspired that I decided to enrol!"

Vanellope gaped in awe at the robot as she looked over him properly. White, rubbery skin, with a bulbous kind of shape, but a basic shape almost identical to what she remembered of her old toy. Only this one was much bigger, and could walk AND talk!

"He's amazing!" she exclaimed.

Hiro grinned.

"Vinyl skin and inflated with air." He said proudly. "Keeps him non-threatening, _and_ huggable, whilst being efficient with inflatant."

Vanellope nodded. She didn't quite understand the thing about efficiency, but she got the rest of it. And she had to say, she was impressed!

"He did a really good job!" she said.

"Yes, he did."

Vanellope turned at his downcast voice to look at him, only to see Hiro smiling sadly at the ground.

Vanellope almost didn't want to ask. If Hiro was this sad when talking about Tadashi, then…

"So," she said cautiously, despite thinking that what she was about to ask was the wrong thing, and not even being sure whether she wanted to know the answer. ", where _is_ he, anyways?"

Hiro's answer just confirmed her fear.

"There was a fire…" he told her, sadly. "…five years ago… after I got in."

Vanellope mentally slapped herself. Probably the wrong thing to say.

"I'm sorry." she said. "Sticky told me, just… I didn't think she meant… _him_."

"It's okay Van." Hiro managed a weak smile. "I'm… I've… I'm over it…"

Then, to Vanellope's surprise, Baymax walked over to the genius, his 'eyes' closed slightly in a sad smile, reached his arms around him and hugged him. Vanellope couldn't help but giggle at the adorable sight of the giant, gentle robot Baymax hugging her first best friend.

"You will be alright." The hugging robot comforted the inventor, reaching up to pat his head twice. "There, there."

Hiro too chuckled with Van at the familiar response his robotic friend gave.

"Thanks buddy."

Baymax let go and stood back, and Hiro turned to him.

"Your emotional state has improved." The robot determined. "Are you satisfied with your care?"

"I'm satisfied with my care."

Job complete, Baymax nodded before carefully walking around the two young adults towards the back of the room. Hiro, meanwhile, turned back to Vanellope, visibly more relaxed and cheered up.

"So," he questioned her. ", what've _you_ been doing all these years?"

Vanellope shrugged awkwardly. After everything that had happened that night, she didn't really want to tell her old friend that she'd been breaking the law for four years. AFTER she'd left.

"Well…" she droned out.

"Oh no."

Both Hiro and Vanellope turned at the robotic voice and laughed at the sight that befell them: Baymax had tried to walk back where he'd come from, but had ended up stepping onto the scattered black objects, and was currently wobbling on top of them, arms out for balance, and unable to move forward without slipping over.

"Hold on a sec buddy." Hiro said through giggles.

But Hiro didn't move to do anything. That was partly why Vanellope was so surprised when the little black things started moving on their own, rolling and crawling across the floor and out from under the robot's feet, clumping and grouping together before climbing up onto the desk they'd been sitting next to in the first place. Together, they stacked up into a twenty centimetre tall, five centimetre diameter hollow cylinder, constructed out of geometrically precise triangles from the thin black objects.

"Whoa!" Vanellope breathed and turned back to Hiro. "How did you do that?"

Hiro merely smiled.

"The microbots are controlled by a neuro-cranial transmitter."

He reached up and brushed some of his unkempt hair out of the way to reveal a thin green band, covered in blinking lights.

"This headband allows me to mentally direct them to whatever I want them to go, and do whatever I want them to. They were my first invention."

He lowered his hand, hiding the band again.

"You mean you're using ESP to control them?" Vanellope said.

She knew what he said, just putting it simpler terms helped her to understand the stuff.

"Yep!"

"Cool!"

Hiro didn't seem to agree. His expression darkened.

"Not when the wrong person's using them." He said, frowning away from her. "Sticky told you about how Professor Callaghan Senior used them to try and take out Alistair Krei, right?"

She nodded understandingly, but added: "Still, they're pretty sweet. What else have you been working on in this cave?"

Hiro smiled again.

"A lot of things!"

He began leading her to the back of the lab toward the porthole-window. She briefly looked below this to the red bot-thing that she realised Baymax had come from, even as the healthcare robot stepped into it and deflated, being encased in the box once more. To the right of both Baymax's container and the window was a desk with a large PC and a flat screen monitor that he led her to.

"After finishing the microbots when I enrolled," he told her as they walked over. "I started going to classes, learning more about the coding side of robots. I also had to do Tadashi's course in advanced robotics after the original Baymax got destroyed in the fire. So rebuilding him was my second project." **[2]**

Hiro kept going, telling Vanellope about the many projects he had worked on in his five years at SFIT. He'd passed nearly three degrees, and kept on going, learning more and more, even starting a physics course, and planning on enrolling in a chemistry one soon too.

All the while he was telling her this he worked away at the monitor, bringing up a design and imaging program and moving it into some projection software. Finally he turned back to Vanellope and said:

"And then, there's this:"

He pressed some buttons on the keyboard, making the lights dim. Then, as Vanellope watched, a number of projectors based around the back of the lab activated, and a holographic image was constructed and filled the back of the lab in front of the two adults and the window.

The image it showed was some sort of screenshot from security footage. It was some kind of facility with blank metal walls, with a raised track in the middle carrying a group of military officials and scientists who stood on it. But the main attraction was the large ring in the centre. Incredibly large, made of composite metal parts, and the centre of which was filled with some sort of purple… thing.

"What is it?" Vanellope asked Hiro as he stood up next to her, looking curiously at the machine.

"This is Project Silent Sparrow, Krei's secret experiment." He answered.

"The one your professor was a test pilot for?"

"Yeah. It's a gravitational induction ring, warping space using fast-moving bosons in order to create a wormhole that connects to another point in space."

Vanellope stared at the hologram in wonder as she realised what he was saying, mainly focusing on the word 'wormhole'.

"It's a portal!" she realised.

"Yep!"

"You're kidding!" she accused.

But Hiro shook his head. He wasn't jesting.

"Nope! Krei built two of these, with the intention of sending someone through one and out the other. He didn't know that the first led to another dimension that any object would pass through before coming out the other side."

Vanellope frowned, this time sceptically as she turned back to the inventor.

"Wait, wouldn't something like this be top secret?" she queried. "As in, illegal to use or even SEE for most people?"

' _I mean, betting is one thing, but this…_ '

"It was." Hiro responded. "Until the professor's father used one of them to try and destroy Krei Tech. After the incident the project was released to the public, though it was still illegal to build one. But a while ago I got interested in this thing while looking into jobs at Krei Tech for a friend, and I figured I could make something more. So I contacted Krei and he gave me schematics."

"No way you're friends with Alistair Krei!"

He shrugged. It's complicated, she realised.

"Long story." He answered simply, sitting down and turning back to the flat-screen. "What I got was an idea to be able to jump swiftly from one place to another without the delay or the danger of getting stuck in-between. You still go to that other dimension, but you only pass through it briefly, for less than a tenth of a second before getting send to your chosen destination."

Vanellope looked back to him. He was typing again, writing new commands into the machine, bringing up another image and moving it into the projection software.

"What I've been designing…" he finished. "…is… this:"

The screenshot vanished and was replaced by something Vanellope thought looked pretty cool.

It was a white suit, fully covering, made with some sort of thick material for full protection. Bulked up at the back, hands and feet, and with blinking lights over the bulky bits. Complete with a helmet that completely shielded the wearer, it was a suit fit for a modern explorer.

In fact, it almost reminded her of another suit…

"A teleportation suit." Hiro announced.

"Whoa!" Vanellope breathed again.

"Pretty cool, huh?" he said proudly. "It's just in design phase though, I'm kinda still working on the tech."

Then Hiro looked up excitedly, moved to turn off the hologram and turn back on the lights then ran over to one of his other desks, the one opposite the one the microbots were stacked on. On top of this one was a bulky, yet hollow cylinder of a similar design to the suit, sitting next to a small black remote.

"Check this out! I've built a prototype!" Hiro told her excitedly as he picked up the device and showed it to the girl. "This is what I used to pitch the idea to the Professor. It actually works too!"

He put it back down at one end of the desk and walked over to her, now carrying the remote. He turned back to face the device.

"Watch this!"

He pressed a few buttons on the remote, then pressed the bigger red button at the bottom.

Vanellope watched as, in an instant, the device disappeared in a flash of purple light, then immediately rematerialized on the other side of the desk in another bright flash.

"Whoa!" Vanellope yelled in amazement.

The thing just teleported! TELEPORTED! In front of her own two eyes, she'd seen something vanish from one place and instantaneously reappear in another. Her first best friend had just invented proper teleportation!

Then something strange happened.

The teleporter suddenly changed, appearing as if it were made up of hundreds of blue, glowing particles. Then these seemed to scatter, zipping about wildly up to a few centimetres away from it. Then they snapped back into position and the device reappeared, perfectly normal. All this happened in perhaps a third of a second, making it all appear as if it had been a blue flash.

"What was that!?" Vanellope exclaimed in surprise.

Hiro seemed mostly unfazed, though he now had a troubled frown on his face. He walked back over to the device.

"It's this weird… glitch it seems to have." He answered her. "It does it every time it teleports, I don't know why it does it or even if there's a way to remove it at all. I've narrowed it down to a bug in the code, but I've checked again and again and it keeps happening."

Vanellope smirked and shook her head as Hiro continued to emit technobabble.

"Something causing the bosons to suddenly jump, causing a backlash on the containment field, making the whole structure temporarily unstable. Wish I knew why, or what, even…"

Hiro sighed and put down the remote, then turned and lent against the desk, smiling at Vanellope.

"So, what do ya think?" he inquired.

"I think it's… pretty sweet!" she replied, then thought of something to ask in return. "What're ya gunna do with it when it's done?"

Hiro smiled at the ground for a moment, deep in thought.

"I haven't actually thought about that." He finally answered. "Normally I just log my inventions into the school server and keep all the tech and prototypes in the garage at home. Krei's asked for some of it on occasion, but I turn him down. He keeps on offering me money to get me to work for him too, but I keep telling him that's not where I want to go. Two of my friends work there, but that job's not for me. It's not what I want to do with my life."

Vanellope nodded, herself in deep thought now. What did _she_ want to do with her life? With all the dancing, building up money to a college she had no clue on, not to mention what course she wanted to do when she got there, she just kinda lost her way. She STILL felt lost.

Vanellope winced as a loud beeping noise pulled her from her thoughts. Turning off her earpiece phone's alarm, she looked back up to Hiro with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry. It's just my alarm." She told him. "It's telling me that I need to head home, though usually it's not after visiting a school and catching up with old friends. Sorry for cutting this short."

He shrugged and stood up.

"Eh, that's okay." He said. "There really isn't much more to say anyway. This is about it. There's the other students, my brother's lab, my inventions, and Baymax. And then just me."

"And is there more to 'just you'?" she asked.

He shrugged again.

Hiro walked over to her and held out a hand.

"You want me to walk you out?" he asked.

Vanellope took his hand and smiled.

"Sure." And she turned with him to walk to the door. "Let's see if we can run into Stinkbrain on the way out. You remember my uncle, right?"

* * *

Ralph's arms were crossed, both from the cold night air outside the lab and the impatience of waiting for Vanellope who'd seemed to just vanished. That girl, 'Sticky' or whatever, had told him when he'd finished his conversation with Professor Callaghan that Vanellope was checking out one of the private labs, which was not something she should be doing, but it was too late to stop her now.

And now he waited, annoyed, freezing, watching the lab doors from the bottom of the stairs in contempt.

Just as he was checking his watch for the tenth time, the doors swung open to two, laughing, voices. One of them was Vanellope, and the other was Hiro.

"So we had a four-kilogram cat zooming around the café on rocket boots," Hiro was saying, ", Tadashi and I were running around trying to catch him, our Aunt Cass yelling at us, and all the while everyone in the café was staring at us so badly!" **[3]**

Vanellope laughed again. "How did you catch him?"

Hiro giggled a bit before continuing.

"That was the fun part! Tadashi actually had to build a miniature EMP to shut them down, and the result had Mochi flying off into Mrs Matsuda's soup!"

"Oh no!" She shrieked with laughter, Hiro joining her.

Unfortunately their fun was cut short when Ralph drew their attention with a "Hey!"

"If you two are done, we need to go." He spoke, slightly angrier than Van expected.

Even still, Vanellope was cheerful in greeting.

"Hey, Stinkbrain!" she chimed as she and Hiro walked down the steps to the driveway. "Sorry for wondering off. Sticky told me about this lanky smarty-pants!"

"Hey I'm not lanky!" Hiro retorted.

"Have you seen yourself lately?" She shot back, smirking.

Hiro shook his head indignantly and stepped forward to the mountainous man Vanellope called uncle.

"Mr… Ralph… sir?" Hiro asked slightly awkwardly, both because of the cross look he was being given and his lack of knowledge on what to call him. Not to mention Ralph was three feet taller than him, and HE was six feet, so he was slightly intimidated by the guy.

He held out his hand for the big man to shake.

"You remember me, right? Hiro Hamada?" he said again. "Vanellope's old best friend?"

Ralph merely frowned at the hand.

"Yeah, I remember." He said with a growl.

Vanellope frowned at him in confusion, while Hiro simple dropped the hand slowly.

"Right." Hiro tried again. "So, how've you been all these years?"

"Getting along." Ralph said coldly, and turned to Vanellope. "We need to go."

And with that, he turned to walk back up the hill towards the car park. His niece and her friend stared after him in confusion.

"What was that about?"

"I dunno." Vanellope said, staring after him. "He's not usually this intense. I mean, he has his temper, but I've never seen him this cold before."

Hiro stood for a moment, then shrugged slightly and turned to smile at his regained friend.

"So, see you 'round some time?"

Vanellope looked to see him holding his hand out for her. She took it and shook.

"Yeah, you'll see me 'round!"

And she walked off up the driveway and the hill, turning briefly to look back at Hiro before running after her uncle. Hiro chuckled to himself as he watched her go, only turning to walk back up the steps to retrieve Baymax and his things when she'd vanished from his view.

* * *

Somewhere in the darkened streets below the night-sight of San Fransokyo, a short figure walked along the sidewalk, a cloak obscuring any view of who he was, a phone carried in his hand. Checking either side of the road he walked along, he crossed it, heading toward a side-alley filled with dumpsters and bins and built-up trash and boxes. He looked down at the phone and the map on it.

He smirked. This was the place.

Placing the phone in a pocket, he strolled into the alley, looking from side to side to try and find what he was looking for. After a moment he found it.

Lying on top of one of the piles of garbage bags was a leather sack. The very bag he'd given to Cybug to carry his loot in. It was bulked up, so it had something inside, just hopefully the thing he was looking for.

He walked up to it and opened the bag and checked. Then he smirked. The stolen Krei Tech Industries' tritium-ion generator was sitting in there in all its glory, thankfully not too damaged for use. He picked the packed up and stowed it under his cloak.

With one last look around the alley, he stalked off into the night, leaving the street dark and empty.

* * *

 **[1a] The Lion King reference**

 **[1b] Toy Story 2 reference**

 **[2] I think you can guess why Hiro is lying in this scene.**

 **[3] This is inspired by a deleted scene of Big Hero 6, where Hiro and Tadashi build rocket boots for Mochi prior to the events of the movie and have chase it around the café, whilst being yelled to by Cass.**

 **So, what do ya think? That's all I'm gonna say in this one.**

 **Next Time: Chapter 5: Big Hero 6**

 **…**

 **Okay, maybe that one's a little too obvious.**


	6. Chapter 5: Big Hero 6

**REVIEW REPLIES:**

 **Ooh! I've got everyone's brains tickin' on that Ralph mystery! Welp, you'll all just have to wait to find out what's going on, I'm (not) afraid to say!**

 **MariMart: *chuckles* Well thanks for the feedback, and for the determination to stay up and read humble little chapter, but take it from me when I say, sleep is important. Read it in the morning next time, k?**

 **Emeraldalex123:  
Oooooookaaaay…?**

 **Samtastic V2.0:  
Answers: Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers, spoiler, and you tell me.  
I honestly REALLY want to tell you! In fact it's possible that some answers are safe enough to tell. But it's not quite good enough to give away the secret. You'll just have to wait and see!  
Sure I'll my best to… wait a sec! Here I am!  
Thanks so very much for the support!**

 **YoungVolcanoBlood:  
Well, thank you for doing so! Wow, the dedication people give to my and Hanaekaptr's story!**

 **Cometacos:  
What's that supposed to mean!? 'That chapter was a bit 'nah''!? =P  
Well, thanks for liking it anyway. And I'm trying to work on getting chapters out every 1-2 weeks, but sometimes month-long gaps will occur. Sorry. =/**

 **Sanaa11:  
How does crying over a sad scene or re-reading a segment again and again make you a freak? I do that all the time with movies! I re-watch moments in Big Hero 6 just for awesomes! I cried so hard at the sad scenes in Inside Out! It's okay to do that! They're just some of the things that make you human.**

 **AUTHOR'S INTRO:**

 **AHHH! I've been so long AGAIN!**

 **Things happen, such as the exams throwing me off, and I'm not the best at writing at home either! I'm SO SORRY for making you guys wait for so long, you've been absolutely amazing.**

 **Anyway, we're FINALLY back! With a new chapter, and new, still simple events, and hopefully I can get back into my system of getting out at least one chapter a week for each of my stories.**

 **Once again, I'm SO sorry you guys, but now you can sit back and enjoy!**

 **NOTE: You may notice that I've uploaded this without waiting for Hanaekaptr to post the preview comic. That's because there currently is no comic; she's in a tough spot right now and can't get to any drawing at all. Hopefully the situation will be sorted out soon, but all we can do is wait and hope so. Until then, no more preview comics, so only those who stumble across humple little story or are already following it from here will probably be reading it.**

 **Chapter 5: Big Hero 6**

By the year twenty-forty, robots were commonplace in San Fransokyo, which was why, nine years later, no one bat an eyelid or stared in wonder, fear or confusion at the nineteen-year-old supergenius being followed around by a red, carbon-fibre box. **[1]**

Hiro usually walked home from SFIT. Not that he couldn't drive; he got his license two years ago, but he'd discovered early on after finally registering that talking a walk helped the creative process, and Baymax happily agreed. Usually it was fair way away to go when he went all the way back to the café though, so he'd catch the tram or use Tadashi's old bike, parked several streets away, to get most of the way back. But where he was heading this night was somewhere else.

About an hour's walk from the Institute was a large, no, GIGANTIC mansion, thirty metres across and with three, four-metre-tall stories, built next to the street in front of a huge plot of land. Its walls were made of white marble, and its sloped, Japanese-style roof was red tiled. The building itself was a set of steps and a short path away from the street, the rest of the area between filled with lawn, hedges and a few trees. Every single one of its many enormous windows were lit up, probably using an insane amount of electricity.

Hiro turned to walk up the steps, followed by Baymax, who rolled up the nearby ramp built for him. Reaching the door, Hiro rang the doorbell, and a few moments later the doors opened to reveal a tall, middle-aged man in a formal suit. This man was balding, and held himself tall and refined, fitting for a man of his profession, being a butler and all.

"Hello, Mr Hamada." He greeted in his upper-class British accent.

"Hey, Heathcliff." Hiro said, smiling.

"Please, come in." Heathcliff stood aside to let the prodigy through into the mansion.

Baymax followed his patient, though he stopped briefly and turned his head in his case towards Heathcliff.

"Thank you for you : Hospitality."

"It is my pleasure, Baymax." The butler replied.

Baymax followed Hiro into the rust-red walls of the entrance hall, with the yellow glow of the chandelier hanging from the centre of the ceiling casting a warm, orange glow onto the room, giving it a home-y kind of feel.

Heathcliff closed the doors and moved to go on with his business, but not before turning back to Hiro and saying:

"Master Stan and the team are in your quarters."

"Thanks, Heathcliff." Hiro knew what he meant.

Hiro and Baymax turned to the left, where they walked into one of the green wallpaper halls. This had several pictures hanging on the walls, depicting various things from a young Fred, to a ship, a still life painting, and a picture of a beach somewhere, and last but not least, a massive portrait of Fred and his family.

A younger Fred stood to the side of the photo, next to his mom, who was sitting on a chair to the left. And dominating the picture was a man with greying hair, wearing orange-shaded glasses and smiling out at whoever happened to be in the room. The entire picture was surrounded by a beautiful golden frame, and hung above an authentic table that stuck out from the wall.

One would barely notice it, but there was also an indented square at about shoulder height on one side of the frame.

Hiro stopped at this portrait and, moving up to it, placed his open palm on the indent.

"Hiro Hamada and Baymax." He stated their names.

After a brief moment, a dinging sound sounded, and the entire wall where the portrait sat clicked open, drifting backwards and to the side to reveal a metal-walled lift, hidden from most eyes. Hiro and the robot stepped in, and waited as the wall closed again and the secret lift moved downwards, heading several metres underground to its destination., Baymax inflating on the way down. **[2]**

The lift first went down past a glass door, past which was a huge aircraft hangar. In reality, compared to most aircraft hangars, it wasn't actually that big, only 6-by-9 metres, littered with various tools and materials lying about, but it was inhabited by a large helicopter, big enough to house ten people including a pilot and a co-pilot. The roof was closed, but it was made of two parts, that could fold open into the courtyard.

The floor of the hangar was made of thick, extremely-tough glass, giving a good view to the metal-walled room below.

Finally the lift dinged again, and the doors opened to a big training room. The room was the same size as the hangar above it, but in the middle of the room was a smaller training ring. The ring had a padded floor, with dummies in each corner, a punching bag hook in the centre, and retractable non-lethal laser guns dotting the roof and floor.

On either side of the room as a whole were change rooms, three on each side, girls on one and boys on the other, five of them labelled with the symbol of a blade, a disk, a claw, a molecule and a silhouette of someone flying. And at the back of the room there was a door in the trans-opaque wall that the prodigy and the robot walked through into a combined war room slash lounge room.

This room had a desk and a control panel sitting next to the door on the left, overlooking the danger room. The walls on either side were covered in newspaper clippings, all depicting the same six heroes. And at the back of the room was a coffee machine, a kettle, a minibar, a small pantry and at a set of sofas, bean-bags and chairs arranged in a circle around a coffee table were seated five of Hiro's friends, still in their supersuits but with their helmets and visors lying around.

Leaning coolly on the rear sofa was the American man in the monster suit, and with the top of the head flipped back Hiro could see he had a long, thin face with a permanent cool, contagious smirk. With bright blue eyes, brown hair that was long enough for him to tie back with an elastic band, and a green creeper beanie on his head.

On his left was the African-American man, still in his under-shirt and pants, though the torso armour and gauntlets were neatly placed on the table with his visor. With an angular face, brown eyes and short, fuzzy, darker-brown hair and a large nose, he held himself in his seat with a level of refinement only someone with MAJOR OCD would have.

Sitting straight on the chair to Zilla's right was the woman in the pink mini-skirt, and she too had removed her armour, which was now sitting at the foot of her chair by her purse. She was latina, with orange-brown skin, olive-green eyes under her pink glasses, and long, dirty-blond hair tied back in a long ponytail. Her lips shone with highlighter-pink lipstick, and large, round earrings hung from her earlobes. She was smiling around at the others, legs together, and a cup of tea in her hands that she was sipping as she listened to the conversation.

On the other side of the room a Korean woman lay back on her chair, a content smirk on her lips. Her eyes were hazel, and her straight, jet-black hair hung down around her head, the lock over her right eye dyed deep purple. Her arms were folded over her yellow armour, which she still wore despite relaxing after-mission, and was chewing a wad of bubblegum, her way of relieving stress and cooling off after a mission.

And standing at the small counter next to the coffee machine, in-between Zilla and Chemi was the same man from the portrait, a cup of decaf in his hand, still wearing his orange sunglasses, and looking as if he hadn't aged a day.

He was Fred's dad, Stan Lieber, and the others were Honey Lemon, Fred, Wasabi, and Gogo. They were Hiro's friends. They were the nerd herd. **[3]**

They were the remaining members of the Big Hero 6.

All five of the group looked up as Hiro and Baymax entered the room.

"Hiro!" Honey all but yelled in greeting.

"Hey man!" Wasabi smiled.

"'Bout time, nerd." Gogo scolded, though she was clearly pleased.

"How's my science bro!?" Fred shouted.

"Hey guys!" Hiro replied to them all. "Sorry I'm late."

"Eh, it's cool." Wasabi shrugged it off. "We know you've still got school to worry about. How's the project coming?"

Hiro moved to sit down on the sofa opposite the other guys, while Baymax waddled over to stand next to him.

"Didn't have much time to look at it actually." The supergenius said. "That glitch is still a major issue. I can't move forward with the suit until I've figured that out."

"Well, we all know you'll get it eventually!" Honey said encouragingly.

"You got this, bro!" Fred.

"If anyone can do it, it's you." Gogo.

Hiro smiled appreciatively.

"Thanks guys." Then he turned to Fred. "How'd you find the upgrade?"

Fred jumped to his feet, and the top of his 'Zilla' costume flung back over his head.

"It's AWESOME! The new claws and sucker-plungers stuck to that wall JUST like Spider-Man! And the flame jets are just WOW! Villains will look at me and think, 'Who is that dangerous superhero? He is not someone to be messed with!' They'll flee in terror and we're SO gonna win!"

Everyone else in the room (besides Baymax) smirked at the comic book fanboy's ever-upbeat attitude.

"So, recap:" Fred began listing his suit's abilities. "I can super-jump; I can 'breathe' fire, I can control my 'tail' with my mind;" On cue the spiked tail swished back and forth, controlled by his suit's neuro-cranial transmitter, just like the super-functions of all their suits were. "I can climb walls, AND I can now blast fire from my arms and back!"

"Fred, there's one more thing you need to know about the suit." Hiro told him.

Fred stood stock still and stared at the supergenius.

"No. Way. There's MORE!?"

Hiro nodded. "You know A-Bomb?"

No one had any doubts that Fred was gaping in awe behind the suit's third eye.

"I CAN ROLL INTO A BALL!?"

"And I thought you might like to combine that with your flame jets to make a REALLY hardcore move!"

"WOOHOOHOO!" Fred whooped ecstatically, jumping nearly to the roof. "OH, YEAH! I can't WAIT to test this new move out!"

"Just make sure to wait 'til you have a long track with no civilians." Gogo stressed. "With your flames you're gonna be a hazard almost as bad as the bad guys we fight. And if you roll really fast you're gonna need a lot of road."

"'Where we're goin', we don't need roads'!" **[4]**

"You should still listen to her." Wasabi told him. "You of all people know how controlled you need to be."

"Yeah, I know." Fred finally began to sober. "'With great power comes great responsibility'. That's one of the most important lessons anyone can ever learn. The stuff you can learn from comics, am I right?" **[4]**

Stan chuckled, fondly, and only then did everyone turn their attention to their host and mentor.

"You've all turned into fine heroes." He appreciated. "I'm proud of all of you."

"Stan!" Hiro finally acknowledged him. "Sorry for ignoring you there."

"It's okay." Stan shrugged it off. "Your teammates should always come first."

Hiro nodded.

Stan was their advisor in HQ, and had been for five years, ever since he came clean to Fred that he was once a superhero himself. He called himself 'Shield', and wore a black spandex suit underneath blue-and-red ferro-plastic torso armour, red leather gloves and boots, an extensive utility belt, and a horseshoe-magnet shaped jetpack. He'd been equipped with a range of weapons tech, from a number of grappling hooks, to a huge multi-functional arm-cannon. But his prize crime-fighting tool was the big, steel shield, coloured in red, blue, gold and silver, and the perfect symbol for what he had represented back in his day.

These days though, he used the knowledge he'd put together through his crime-fighting to guide the new group of superheroes on their daily escapades, keeping the city safe from people who could hurt it. Something as big as what happened at Krei Tech HQ five years ago was a rare occurrence, but there were still supervillains out there, waiting to cause harm, and the police, even led by Sargent Simmons, had no chance of stopping them. That's why, and the only reason why, the world needed superheroes.

And that's why Hiro had taken off in Stan's footsteps, just like Stan had before him. 'Cause if he didn't help, who would?

 _Someone has to help._ **[4]**

Course, once they're back in HQ after a long and tough mission, just as Stan said, teammates come first before reviewing the mission.

Speaking of which…

"Still," Gogo added from where she sat. "Maybe we _should_ check the feeds."

Everyone nodded, Baymax re-inflated and the seven people in the lounge area stood up and walked back to the other side of the war room, to the set of chairs that sat in front of the control panel. Sitting down in the wheelie chair in the centre, Stan pressed a number of buttons to dim the lights, and the trans-opaque wall lit up from the projector behind them to show a collection of six security screens, one for each of the six big heroes.

This is where Stan sat while the six were out there fighting bad guys. Stan watched the feeds, taking notes with the help of his knowledge acquired from his own crime-fighting, then when everyone returned after-mission he'd praise them for their successes and bring them up-to-speed on their flaws. They could then use this during training, which they usually did on weekends when there wasn't an emergency.

Stan didn't direct them on this during a fight; Hiro was the leader, and he was there to make a plan and make sure they followed it, or to agree on changes the others made to it. If Stan called them all out on their mistakes during battle it would be distracting, and that could make things go really bad. All of them understood this, so none of them asked him about it.

Using the large trackpad to drag each of their feeds up to full-screen, Stan played back them back one-by-one, talking about their performances. Even Baymax took in the advice, as even HE could improve his skills. There wasn't much to talk about this time, since the fight had been comparatively short, but Baymax, Gogo, Wasabi and Fred did make notes on how to improve on their techniques. For example, Gogo was given a lecture on how to hold her shield up while still paying attention to the road.

Eventually the feeds reached the point where the fight was over, and displayed Blast's chat with the Sargent, Zilla, Rocket, Plasblade and Disk helping to move the villain, and Chemi questioning the dance team who'd remained at the scene when the supervillain arrived.

And of course it reminded Hiro of how he'd recognised Vanellope back there, and he was immediately drawn to the fact that his old best friend had been arrested for betting a mere hour before she'd ran into him in the lab.

"It was fun to watch though." Fred was saying, his real head once again visible. "Those dance moves were sick! You should scroll back to where that guy and girl were breakdancing!"

"Doesn't make it any more legal to gamble on it." Gogo said dryly.

"To be fair," Hiro spoke up. ", a lot of gambling goes on in the darker areas of the city. You guys know full well of what I did before enrolling at uni."

"True."

"I feel sorry for them, and kinda guilty." Honey said. "Six months in jail for betting, and it's really OUR fault they were arrested."

"Vanellope was bailed."

The other five (minus Baymax) turned to look at Hiro.

"Who was what?" Gogo asked.

"Vanellope," Hiro replied, turning to them. ", the leader of those dancers who were still there."

"Sugar Rush." Honey said.

"Right. Her uncle must've bailed her or something before she went to the university-"

"Hold up." Gogo interrupted, blinking incredulously. "Who's 'Vanellope', how do you know her, and what do you mean she was at the university?"

Hiro blinked in apparent confusion before shaking his head and responding.

"Oh. Vanellope's her nickname. She was an old friend of mine when we were little. My ONLY friend actually. She left with her uncle Ralph to Sacroshima when her parents died fourteen years ago, so clearly she's changed a lot since I knew her."

He stared at the paused screen, falling silent.

"And what was she doing at SFIT?" Gogo pressed him to continue

"Well she's not a student, so she was probably checking out college choices." Hiro deduced, as she hadn't told him that little bit of information. Though he DID recall her hesitating when he asked her what she'd been doing with her life, and now he could see why.

He couldn't really blame her. He wouldn't be the one to tell her he'd been betting on bot fights if he'd been in the same situation.

"Anyway," Fred cut in, ", let's talk about Cybug."

He sat down next to his dad and shifted the feeds back to when they'd assembled in a line in front of the downed villain, filling their view with him.

"Or, 'Darren Larrix'." Fred air-quoted as he rotated the chair beneath him and leaned back against it. "Sargent Simmons told Blast she'd been chasing him for years."

"When's the hearing supposed to be?" Hiro asked. He'd gotten changed and run back to SFIT earlier on while the others had contacted the Sargent about that subject.

"Monday." Wasabi replied. "Simmons is hoping she can finally find out who that guy's been working for before they put him away for good."

"Well, he'll have some good company." Gogo smirked.

"Yeah! Amongst every supervillain we've ever faced!" Fred said triumphantly, before correcting himself. "Except that MadGal chick, who killed herself, which was bad, and not something I want happening again, but that's besides the point." **[5]**

"Even Callaghan's down there." Gogo commented. "Though he's not really a threat without… well, you know."

No one mentioned the sensitive topic that was that former professor Robert Callaghan had used Hiro's invention for bad things.

"So," Fred changed the topic. ", think we'll get any press coverage?"

Honey shook her head.

"Disk and Rocket were moving too fast out in the streets, and there were no reporters down in the alley." She replied. "The only time someone may have caught something would be when Plasblade jumped on Cybug's back, but apart from that the only footage on us this time will probably be from the gambler's cameras, which will probably have been confiscated."

"Eh," Fred smiled, though clearly slightly deflated. "Maybe next time."

Then everyone started as Baymax suddenly announced to the group "It is getting late. Aunt Cass may be getting worried."

They all chuckled at the robot's timing, which was of course perfect.

"Thanks buddy." Hiro said. "We'll leave in a bit."

"So what's the plan for tomorrow?" Fred asked.

"Same as usual I think." Gogo answered. "The four of us go to the Café for breakfast then head over here for training?"

"I'll be waiting here, setting the danger room up with Heathcliff." Stan told them, speaking up at last.

"Then we'll head out on patrol with Simmons." Wasabi added.

"And return to have dinner at the Café." Honey finished.

"Sounds like a plan." Hiro smirked.

And with that, Hiro and the robot said goodbye to the nerd herd and their mentor, and left the building to catch public transport back to the Café, and home, Baymax making sure to deflate into his case before leaving.

* * *

Meanwhile, Vanellope and Ralph had made it back to the apartment half an hour ago, where Ralph had wasted no time on cooking dinner with his large, clumsy fingers and just ordered pizza. One of the advances of having an actual job: they could order proper meals more often instead of having to deal with Ralph's clumsy cooking or Vanellope's constant success at burning it. If it wasn't take-out, it was usually either undercooked or charcoal.

So that is why, while Hiro and Baymax had been walking through the dark streets toward the mansion, Van and he uncle had been sitting at the table eating pizza.

Vanellope was deep in thought, and had been ever since they'd left the university. Neither of them had said anything in the car or as they sat and ate, so her mind had the chance to wander, mainly centring on the friend she hadn't seen in over a decade.

She could barely remember much of what had happened that year fourteen years ago, but she'd been three at the time, so that wasn't all that surprising. She DID remember him focusing a lot on maths and science and things that should've been WAY outside his age-level, so even back then she'd known he was VERY smart.

Still, it was odd knowing that the first friend she ever had was now the top student of the most prestigious college in the state, having enrolled at fourteen with an invention that had become a supervillain's weapon. 'Friends'-ish with Alistair Krei, adapting portal technology INVENTED by Krei, and brother to the man who actually BUILT a _Baymax_! She couldn't get him off her mind!

On top of that, he was kinda hot…

It took Ralph clearing his throat three times to sway her from her thoughts back to reality, where Ralph was trying to speak to her.

"Hmm?" she finally responded.

"So…" he started at last, choosing his words carefully. "… I'm starting to think that maybe SFIT isn't the best school for you."

Vanellope sighed, though she couldn't tell whether it was in relief or disappointment. Relief that Ralph had FINALLY changed his mind about sending her to a science college. Disappointment 'cause… well… she wouldn't be spending time with Hiro.

Ralph seemed to take the sigh as exasperation, for he clarified:

"Professor… Callag-han? Yes, Callaghan. Mentioned something about enrolment involving this student showcase, where you'd have to submit something impressive otherwise they don't let you in, and the problem is that that was in January, so even if you want to go there you're gonna have to wait another six months to give it a shot. Plus the acceptance standard is really high, and with the number of applicants each year it's probably unlikely that you'll get in."

Vanellope frowned. Firstly she was annoyed that he didn't trust her ability, though to be fair she could probably agree that her ability to invent something amazing was unlikely. But really his answer sounded kinda false. With six months till the next showcase, she probably had a shot to get in if she wanted to, though she'd only want to do so to see Hiro all the time. Besides, she doubted that was the ONLY way to enrol. Ralph didn't seem like he was telling the full truth here.

"I-I'm not saying it's impossible," Ralph noticed her frown and tried to correct himself. ", Just that… statistically… it may be best if we try somewhere else-"

"Has this got something to do with how you reacted to Hiro earlier?"

Ralph stopped it this. It wasn't much, but he reacted.

"N-no, I'm just trying to find the best place for you-"

Vanellope rolled her eyes in disgust. He was lying.

She stood up and turned away from the table.

"Tired." She muttered, loud enough for him to hear the irritation dripping from her voice. "Going to bed."

Ralph sighed as he watched her go, and turned back to his pizza.

* * *

 **[1] I think most people forget that promo video where Baymax's case was moving on wheels, plus it rolled away when Hiro was trying to pack him away before finding the microbot. Baymax's case has wheels.**

 **[2] Just so you know, a 'lift' is what some people call an 'elevator'. I prefer the term 'lift'.**

 **[3] Yup, more descriptions. I know it's probably unnecessary, I mean you've seen these guys before. Plus it takes up a whole load of your time. Though this time you may notice there are modifications to the nerd herd's description from the movie. I will refer you to Hanaekaptre's 'The Gang', which depicts my friend's idea of what the gang look like around the time of BHG.**

 **[4] Too good to resist!**

 **[5] I believe Mad Gal was the villain the BH6 faced in the original Marvel comic book series, but I can't quite remember; I haven't read it in a while. I don't think she killed herself in that one though.**

 **So, just want to mention how I made each of them refer to their hero forms by their hero names rather than their normal ones. Made sense that they'd learn to refer to each of them by codename while on mission and keep in-practice by calling themselves that when reviewing the feeds.**

 **Once again, I hope my friend's situation gets sorted out soon, and the previews will come back. Until then, chapters will come a little bit quicker, but with no illustrations.**

 **So, this chapter's actually shorter than most, just under 4K. It doesn't seem like my best either. Oh well, next time we should be getting back to normal.**

 **And speaking of, next time Van wanders around town and happens upon a café…**

 **Next Time: Chapter 6: Coolest Friends on Earth**


	7. Chapter 6: Coolest Friends on Earth

**REVIEW REPLIES:**

 **Sanaa11:  
No probs! Just being me!  
Yeah, me too. She doesn't know how long things will take to get better, so we're all just gonna have to wait in hope that it's soon. 'Til then, no pics from her :(**

 **SuperFan44:  
Well, I needed SOME way to fill out the chapter, and Stan's extensive description seemed like the best way to do it. The superhero references were stuff I've been thinking of since my friend drew the image.  
As for Ralph, you're not even close!**

 **DamnYouPeopleWithCoolUserNames:  
Yeah, the Swizz'll return! Won't be for a while though, stuff's gotta happen first.**

 **Cometacos:  
Welp, I'm not gonna stop adding them 'til I run out of characters to describe. There's only a few more, but I want to put them into the story.  
Three LINES really, but yeah. Just because she's the main protagonist doesn't mean she'll be a major part of every chapter. There are some where she'll appear for maybe a few lines, and one chapter where she won't turn up at all! She DOES save the day in the end though.  
Don't hurry me. Doing so will result in me getting annoyed, which will actually be detrimental to your goal. Capish?**

 **Voltrooper23 deviantart:  
Thanks for the praise! I hadn't actually thought of giving one of them that line! Though I don't think it'd work anyway, they don't really need more members yet. They will later, but not now.  
Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm not taking them this time. This is entirely between me and my friend, as I'm just writing based on her idea. She'll join the BH6 eventually, but not quite yet.  
Thanks again for your support though!  
I'm not sure I know what's causing the glitch. I just wanted to put something at least pseudo-scientific in there to tie this into the sci-fact world of ****Big Hero 6** **. The suit design is basic; the REAL suit will be the one Hanaekaptr drew.**

 **AirFireWaterEarth:  
Thanks for the constructive criticism! It's really appreciated!**

 **Joey (guest):  
Gollum: Gimme a chance, Precious, gimme a chance!**

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Sorry I've been so long again, I ran into some trouble writing this chapter, plus if you'll go back and read AirFireWaterEarth's review for the previous chapter you'll realise that I then had to go back and edit most of Vanellope's dialogue in the story so far. Fun. But still, I appreciate the help.**

 **So, if you'll take the direction to read back through the previous five chapters to read Vanellope's new personality, which is now much more like the Vanellope from the film, that would be great, otherwise you'll notice her sudden personality change in this one. There's not too much change all the way through, but there's enough to catch up on for sure, plus it'll give you a sense of who she REALLY is. I've ALSO updated some of the description, as I wasn't entirely pleased with how it was before.**

 **Hanaekaptr's still not back, but I'm still here with a new chapter for you guys. My friend's gonna have a hard time catching up!**

 **Actually, with the stupid rate in which I'm spewing out chapters, that's not entirely true…**

 **Anyways, enjoy!**

 **Chapter 6: Coolest Friends on Earth**

Vanellope groggily stirred the next morning. Sunlight was blaring through her apartment window, but she felt so tired, and the bed sheets were so, so, soft…

Reluctantly, she rolled over and pushed herself up. Looking up though hazy eyes, the digital clock on the wall told her it was seven-thirty, hence why it was sunny. It was a Sunday, so Ralph would almost certainly be at the apartment, unlike the day before when…

Vanellope flopped back onto the bed as she remembered the events of the day before. Meeting Taffyta and Candlehead several floors below, the make-or-break dance fight against The Swizz, the super-fight interruption, the fight with Taffyta in jail, all topped off with meeting her old friend and his brother's walking, talking, Baymax robot at SFIT. What a day.

After a moment she pushed herself out of bed, changed into an outfit consisting of her pink sneakers, mint-and-white striped leggings, a brown, pleated skirt, a loose off-the-shoulder black undershirt and a magneta sleeveless top, and mozzied out to the apartment's main room, the dining/kitchen area complete with a square island-table and a minibar. **[1]**

She wasn't sure she was satisfied or annoyed when she discovered her uncle already sitting in the two chairs he took up at the island, so she chose to ignore the not-so-emotionally-gentle giant and walk to the other side of the room and open the in-built pantry-shelf, recently stocked with various ready-meals, quick-cook things, two-minute noodles and, the subject of Vanellope's search, cereal. **[2]**

Well, minus the cereal. Apart from the remnants remaining in the box that now sat in front of Ralph, they appeared to be out of the stuff. She sighed tiredly and rubbed her face to try and get some feeling back into it and clear her barely-woken vision.

She closed the pantry doors and walked back to the island, falling into one of the seats heavily. She pulled out her mobile screen and opened up the texts app, before remembering again that her friends were now sitting in jail.

Even if she did text them, what would she say? She and Taffy didn't really part on the best terms. Her heart sank as she realised it kinda WAS her fault they were in there, though not quite for the reasons Taffy'd said. Maybe she SHOULD've moved on from the whole thing.

In the end she'd really done it, tried to get them to keep going, for selfish reasons. It was the thrill really. Being out there, with high stakes, and adrenalin-inducing action, her friends by her side and a whole lot of monetary gain. Some 'friend' she was.

She needed to make it up to them somehow, though how exactly wasn't coming to her. Maybe she could visit them and talk to her about the whole thing, like good people should?

Unfortunately, as he could read her mind, Ralph finally spoke up from his quiet position on the side of the island to her left.

"You know what I'm gonna say." He said, before shovelling another large spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

Vanellope groaned and rolled her eyes.

"You're gonna tell me NOT to go visit my friends." She predicted.

"Mmm, hmm."

He swallowed his mouthful and continued.

"You've spent enough time with those girls as it is." He reasoned. "It's probably best you stay away from them, a-at least for a while."

"Look," she replied, "I just need to apologise to Taffy for getting them into that mess, that's all."

"Then you can wait a week or something, until I'm not still mad at you."

She looked her furrowed eyebrows up at him.

"You're ALWAYS mad at me."

"Yeah? Guess why, Fartfeathers."

She groaned again at the nickname.

"You haven't called me that name in years."

"Hey, if you're allowed to call me 'Stinkbrain', I still have to right to call you that!" he smiled in joke-argument, trying to lighten the mood. Unfortunately Vanellope's frown had returned to the screen.

He sighed and looked back down to his half-finished gigantic bowl of cereal.

"And I don't want you going to anymore dance fights either." He added after a moment.

Vanellope huffed.

"My dance team is in jail." she reasoned, not looking up from her phone. "What would be the point?"

Awkward silence returned to the table as Ralph returned to his breakfast and Vanellope tapped away at the 'game over' button in a game of Tetris. This was the third game in a row this morning in which she'd lost. She just couldn't get her mind to focus through her annoyance at Ralph at the moment. It was getting infuriating.

Her stomach growled, signalling to her that she could just be too hungry to put together coherent thought. Closing the game, she pulled up the internet and searched for cafés and lunch bars in the area, to find there was one only a few streets away. It would have to do.

Putting the screen in her jeans' pocket, she stood up from her chair and turned to leave.

"I'm going out for breakfast." She announced without giving room for her uncle to argue. "Don't wait up."

She was nearly at the door when she turned back to face him, frowning annoyedly.

"And by the way: it's dance _BATTLING_."

And with that, she pushed through the door and left the apartment, not there to see her uncle watch her go sadly.

* * *

 _~ I remember the nights!  
~ Caught up in dreaming my goodby-ayes!  
~ Watching the door, for anything more  
~ Than an ordinary life!  
_ **[3]**

She quietly hummed along with the old, tens music from her phone as she walked, hands in pockets, along the sidewalk of the streets leading from the apartment to the shop she was going to for breakfast. She was still annoyed with how things had worked out the day before, and though the music only helped marginally, it was nice to zone out and listen. **[4]**

Stupid Ralph, stupid move, stupid 'friend' he works for. Actually, just stupid Ralph. If he didn't keeping losing his job because of his stupid strength issues, they'd still be in Sacroshima and none of this would've happened. She'd still be friends with Taffyta and Candlehead, no move would've taken place and everything would be alright.

Though, she wouldn't've re-met Hiro. Or Baymax. Or Sticky. She wouldn't have realised that there were superheroes out there, or that strange things were happening in Amerasia without her realising it.

Besides, Ralph would probably still be urging her to enrol at a science college, so much the same things would be happening, just she'd have her friends by her sides as they did.

Great, now she was feeling down.

She sighed and turned off her music before it sparked into the second chorus and just walked down the street, her thoughts her only companion for a while.

Eventually she looked back down at her screen to check the map, confirming that the shop she was looking for should be only a few blocks away. Shaking her depressing and annoying thoughts from her head, she put the screen away and walked down to the end of the street to find the quaint little café she was looking for.

It was actually fairly big, though only the large, yellow-walled floor at the bottom was probably the café. The top two floors looked more like a living residence, with turquoise, wooden walls around the bordered windows, aligned on bot top floors, and the whole thing was roofed with the traditional Japanese-style tiles, sloping gutters that curved up at the edges and gave the building a nice authentic feeling.

Not bothering to pay much attention to the building itself, Vanellope just walked over to the café doors, which faced the corner of the intersection nearby, and stepped inside to the pale-green walls and varnished floor of the shop.

There were old-fashioned tables and chairs everywhere, as you'd expect from a café, with people sitting around eating whatever breakfast and drinking their drinks, usually coffee, whilst holding up a conversation or reading a newspaper. The walls were lined with menus, a calendar, various stocked shelves, a pot plant, a number of cat motifs and items, and a number of large windows letting sunlight stream through, not that they were needed with the number of LED lights hanging from the ceiling.

At the side opposite of the shop from the wall on the street Van'd been walking along was the counter, behind which currently stood the shopkeeper, a middle-aged Japanese-American woman with shoulder-length brown hair and olive green eyes. She wore blue jeans and a black shirt, and a small belt-apron that held her computer-tablet, currently set up to show her list of orders she'd yet to complete, though right now it was blank. Her straight-flowing hair, large eyes and triangular face reminded Vanellope of someone. And on top of that, she showed some resemblance to Hiro.

The shopkeeper looked up at the sound of the bell ringing and smiled as Vanellope stepped in, the younger girl ignoring the stares she got at her strange choice of clothes.

"Hey!" the woman greeted, smiling as Vanellope moved up to the counter. "Welcome to the café! Anything peak your fancy?"

Vanellope took a brief glance at the menu to the woman's left before answering.

"Just a chicken wrap, please."

The shopkeeper nodded and got to work moving back and forth to grab each of the ingredients, heating some chicken in a microwave, reaching for the wraps, and so on.

Vanellope, meanwhile, winced as she reached into her pocket and realised something very important. She'd forgotten her wallet.

So, this was embarrassing. Walking all the way here, getting so far as ordering breakfast, not realising she doesn't have the money to pay for it. Needless to say, this was bad.

She could do a number of things. She could say sorry to this to the poor woman behind the counter who was now making her something she couldn't afford and tell her she forgot her wallet, then either head back quickly to grab it or cancel the order. Or she could just leave before she realises she's gone. In her hungry, irrational state, sneaking off sounded like a pretty good idea.

In her hurry to turn around and leave she didn't look where she was turning, and Van ended up colliding headfirst with someone for the second time in twelve hours. Stumbling back, she rubbed her forehead and opened her eyes again to glare at whoever she'd run into…

Only to find herself staring straight into the brown eyes of Hiro Hamada.

"Hiro?" she greeted in surprise.

"Hey, Vanellope!" Hiro chuckled, rubbing his own forehead. "Fancy seeing you here!"

"Yeah, great to see you too!" she replied, somewhat cheered up. She frowned slightly and said, "What are you doing here?"

' _He's probably getting breakfast or something, like I was TRYING to do…_ '

"Oh, I live here."

"Wait, what?" she asked. "You LIVE here?"

Hiro nodded. "This is my aunt's café!" He announced, gesturing to the building as a whole.

Vanellope followed his gesture. Come to think of it, it kinda DID look familiar.

"Oh yeah!" she chuckled. "I forgot about that!"

He chuckled a bit with her, then looked around her to the shopkeeper. "Hey, Aunt Cass!"

The woman, who now Vanellope was finally beginning to recognise as Hiro's aunt Cassandra, looked up from grabbing the chicken from the microwave at her nephew.

"You remember Vanellope?"

After a moment, Cass' eyes lit up.

"Oh my gosh!" she smiled, leaning back on the counter. "Vanellope! It's been so long! How've you been?"

"Hey, Miss Hamada!" Vanellope greeted properly, turning back to her. "I'm doing fine, I guess."

"Hiro told me you're back yesterday!" Cass told her. "How was the move?"

Vanellope frowned slightly, but still answered.

"Difficult. Things've been happening, and It's been a bit difficult coping."

"Aww! I'm sure things'll turn out fine, given the chance!"

Hiro rolled his eyes, smiling.

"Cass, you know you don't need to do that." He said. "We're not kids."

"It's fine, Hiro." Vanellope assured him.

A moment later Cass finished the wrap and handed it to Vanellope, only for the younger girl to hold her hands back, explaining she forgot her wallet.

"Nono!" Cass insisted. "You're a friend! Take it, on the house!"

Van's stomach growled on cue, making all three of them chuckle, giving her no choice but to take her piece of salvation with a grateful smile. She took a bite out of it, as Cass turned back to her job and Hiro led Van into the rest of the café.

"Wanna meet my friends?" he asked her.

"What, I'm not one?" she joked.

Hiro shook his head with a smirk.

Scanning around the room toward where he was leading her, Vanellope spotted someone sitting at one of the round tables in the middle of the café, a young adult Korean woman wearing a grey-purple sleeveless tight-collared shirt and grey leggings under black sports shorts. Her purple-streaked hair stuck out to Vanellope as someone she knew to be very famous.

She stopped briefly and gaped slightly as she recognised the woman as Ethel Tomago, a famous alternate-propulsion bike racer, having joined the sport in San Fransokyo after graduating from SFIT with a Masters in Electromagnetism two years ago. While Van'd always been interested in dance battling, up until recently she'd secretly harboured a dream of becoming a famous racer, so she'd followed various news blogs, her favourite being one following Ethel Tomago, her inspiration for taking that bet to get her old bike.

She clutched Hiro's arm and squealed quietly, "There's a famous racer in the café!"

Hiro merely chuckled. That was when Van realised that Miss Tomago's table was where he was leading her!

' _These must be his friends!_ ' she realised, even as she noticed Baymax standing at the table amongst the group. How she'd failed to spot the great big robotic lob as she walked in, she had no idea.

Also at the table were a Latina woman wearing pink glasses, circle earrings, a bright, loose, dotted shirt and an orange-pleated skirt over yellow leggings, a American guy a creeper beanie, yellow T-shirt, green hoddie and sand-brown shorts, and an African-American man in a large green sweater and jeans. **[5]**

Hiro called to them, and all five of them looked up to see him approach, saying various "Hello"s.

"Hiro!" The Latina woman.

"Hey man!" The African-American man.

"Morning, nerd!" Ethel Tomago (squeals!).

"Great ta see ya!" the American guy said, before seeing Van. "Who's the girl?"

"Hey guys!" Hiro said. "This is Vanellope, my old friend I told you about."

The blond-haired Latina woman held her hand out to Van, which she gladly shook.

"Great to meet you! I'm Honey Lemon!"

Vanellope failed to refrain from snickering.

"Honey Lemon?"

"I came up with nicknames for all of them!" the American guy said. "The name's Fred, and these guys are Wasabi and-"

"Ethel Tomago!" Vanellope couldn't help but butt-in. "I'm a HUGE fan of you! Your moves are amazing, and I'll admit I'm kinda a fan of your electro-mag-suspension bike!"

Ethel rolled her eyes.

"GREAT. Your friend's a _fan_." She said at Hiro dryly.

Vanellope cleared her throat.

"Sorry, I mean-" she shook her head to calm down. "What's your nickname?"

The racer smirked again and held out her hand to shake.

"Gogo." She said.

"She's always had a need-for-speed kinda attitude." Fred explained. "The name fit like a secret identity! It was awesome!"

"Nice, no, GREAT to meet you!" Van said to the now-named Gogo before turning to Hiro. "When did you become friends?"

"All of us were Tadashi's friends." Honey answered for him. "He met all of us when he enrolled."

"Oh." Vanellope's face fell slightly, though no one else's did.

"I've been friends with them ever since." Hiro told her. "They really helped me get out of a bad spot after the fire. Keep in mind this was BEFORE she became famous." Vanellope noticed the slight smugness in his voice as he finished.

"And I take it you know Baymax?" Fred asked.

Vanellope nodded, looked up at the robot.

"Yeah, he gave me a bit of a scare yesterday." She gave Baymax a stern look.

Baymax tilted his head to the side and said, "I apologise if I : upset you. I am a personal healthcare companion. I did not mean to : scare you."

Vanellope giggled at his stilted language.

"That's okay, big guy."

Now that everyone was fully introduced, Gogo stood up and moved her chair to the side toward Fred, on her left.

"Here." She said, "Grab a seat."

The two grabbed spare chairs from a nearby table and sat down, and soon the group was back to chatting about things, talking to Vanellope about what they did since graduating two years ago. Honey and Wasabi had gotten jobs at Krei Tech Industries, working closely with the man himself. While she wasn't as much a fan of Krei as she was of Gogo, Van had heard of him well before Sticky had told her of the attack.

Fred was still working at SFIT, the same mascot he'd been for years. He'd also finished an English major, and had a small hobby writing superhero comics, though he hadn't finished many since graduating, as he was apparently very busy being the mascot. Vanellope didn't quite buy that, as she hadn't seen him anywhere the previous evening. But then again, SFIT was a big place; he could've been anywhere.

Vanellope herself had told the others a bit of her own life, about her knowing Hiro years ago, the bully situation when she was nine, and partially of her high Physics success in high school, though she cut out the stuff about the dance battling, of course.

Eventually they moved on to their own conversations. Honey and Wasabi started talking to each other about one of their projects at Krei Tech, so intent on talking only to each other about it that Vanellope could just TELL they were an item. Hiro and Fred began talking about what superpowers were and were not possible to replicate with technology, which left Van to get drawn into a conversation with her idol. Their common interests were the topic of the moment, which was why Vanellope was now telling Gogo about her old motorbike. **[6]**

"I actually bought it not long after you first made the headlines!" Vanellope was saying. "It was old and a bit rusty, unlike my friends', but I got it to a mechanic to give it some fixing and a tune-up."

"What colour did you paint it?"

Vanellope shied down slightly as Gogo asked this, thinking that Gogo might look down on her extravagant design.

"It was… not quite a nice-looking as your yellow one." She replied. "I painted it purple, then tried to decorate it as if it was covered in a mish-mash of candy. It wasn't what you'd probably call 'pretty', but I liked the design."

Gogo nodded understandingly.

"What did your friends think of it?" she took a sip from her latté.

"Candlehead didn't mind." She said, then chuckled. "It made Taffyta wanna puke!"

"She that self-image-obsessed, turned-up-nose kinda person?"

"Yeah, she's a lot like that!"

"Those are the worst!"

The two girls laughed a bit, and Vanellope felt the tension that'd held up in her system since Ralph had announced the move finally drain away in the company of her new friend.

After a minute their laughing calmed down, and Gogo moved onto a new topic.

"So, what's with you and the nerd?" she asked, nodding to Hiro.

"We were just friends for a year, a long time ago."

"Well you got back into it pretty quickly if you ask me."

Vanellope couldn't help but notice Gogo was smirking, and she recognised that smirk from Taffyta a LOT.

"NO, no, c'mon! We were just meeting each other for the first time in fourteen years," Vanellope insisted. ", it's not that weird."

"People don't just remember each other after that amount of time, ESPECIALLY from when they were in kindergarten."

"We're friends, okay!"

"Come on," Gogo egged her on. "What'cha like about him?"

Vanellope sighed, her eyes inadvertently falling on the supergenius. There were SO many ways she could answer that question. He was smart. He was funny. He was hot—wait, what?

She shook her head and turned back to her.

"We're JUST friends, Speedfreak." She maintained.

Gogo snorted at the nickname.

"You know, it's not nice to call people names like that."

Van shrugged. "Meh. I call people names like that all the time, always have. My Uncle Ralph is 'Stinkbrain', my friends Tiffany and Candice are 'Taffyta' and 'Candlehead', my old principle was 'King Candy', 'cause he acted like a king and REALLY liked candy. I'm not the only one! Ralph used to call me names too, though he stopped when I moved into high school."

Gogo's eyes narrowed mischievously, and Vanellope started worrying as she briefly, conspiringly, looked at Hiro.

"What did you call Hiro?"

"What did you call who now?"

Van looked over to see that everyone had finished their conversations and now all of them, including Hiro, were looking at them, all smirking apart from Hiro, who was looking confused and a tiny bit unsure and nervous.

Vanellope found his expression hilarious. Just enough to be provocative.

Smirking herself, she turned back to Gogo.

"I used call him 'Toothgap'." She answered.

"Whoa, what!?"

Everyone at the table apart from Hiro and Baymax started giggling at the name, having all noticed the predominant gap in his teeth that had been there since they'd met him.

"Oh I called Tadashi and Cass by their names, but Hiro got… special treatment."

More laughing, whilst Hiro sat amongst it uncomfortably.

"Tell us more." Gogo said.

"Oh I could go on all day about the stuff I remember about Toothgap!" Vanellope started. "Back then he wanted to make a giant gummy bear that he could fly on and eat all day!"

The nerd herd burst out laughing in earnest at this next one, leaving an exasperated Hiro gawking and protesting in his seat as Vanellope went on and on about various embarrassing things she remembered about him.

"Vanellope, PLEASE stop!" Hiro urged more than once, but he was ignored.

After a number of minutes, that was AT LEAST fifteen Hiro counted, Vanellope began to run out of things she remembered from fourteen years ago, all the jokes and funny anecdotes she told becoming music to everyone's ears. Vanellope was smiling so much her cheeks hurt, really falling in with this new group of friends, so unlike Taffy and Candy yet such great people. She could see why Hiro liked them.

At the end of it Gogo put her arm around Vanellope's shoulders and said:

"This, my dear, is the start of a GREAT friendship!"

By this point Van wasn't even thinking about the fact that she was now friends with a world-class racer, just that she was friends with one of Hiro's nerd friends who shared her sense of humour.

By this point Hiro had finally had enough. Cheeks blushing red as a rose, he stood up and started pulling a chuckling Vanellope out of her seat and away from Gogo. Those two were nothing but trouble.

"OOookay!" he announced. "That's enough meet-and-greet, let's just… GO!"

He grabbed Van's arm and began to lead her away toward the back, toward a doorway that she assumed lead to the actual residence. It did, judging by the reactions of the nerd herd.

Gogo snorted.

Fred wolf-whistled.

"OOoooohhh!" Honey cooed.

"Try not to go to sleep too quickly!" Wasabi called.

"Always use a-"

"BAYMAX!" Hiro scolded embarrassedly.

The four humans at the table laughed again as an embarrassed Hiro led a giggling Vanellope into his house for the first time in over a decade.

* * *

 **[1] Basically what she's wearing in Hanekaptr's 'Hanging Around' pic, whence where this chapter leaves off.**

 **[2] Okay, here's a question to you USA-ians out there. What kind of cereals do you have in your country? I mean here in Down-Under we have Weet-Bix, Coco-Pops, Nutri-Grain, oats and other things like that, but what do you guys have for breakfast?  
Actually, that's a good point.  
Just out of interest, could everyone who posts a review tell me in said review what you have for breakfast?**

 **[3] HAHA! Got it in there! Ladies and gentlemen, Greek Fire's 'On Top of the World'!  
I mean it really didn't have a place anywhere else in the story, and I needed her listening to music! What can ya' do!?**

 **[4] That's TWENTY-tens, when I said 'tens' there.**

 **[5] This paragraph is purely to describe their clothes in the scene, which are basically the ones in Hanaekaptre's 'The Gang'.**

 **[6] Just so you know, I actually ship Honeydashi, but in a world where Tadashi's gone I figure that these two might get together eventually. I also kinda ship FredxGogo, but I won't go into that in this fic I don't think.**

 ***whistles* that's a LOT of annotations.**

 **Chapters seem to be short lately, huh? Oh well, at least they're longer than the ones I did for** **Disney-PIXAR's The Incredibles** **. *cringes***

 **So, next time Hiro shows Vanellope around his home, and much of it IS based on Hanekaptr's 'Hanging Around' pic, so that can act as the preview image for next time, at least until she's ready to draw again.**

 **Next Time: Chapter 7: Hanging Around**


	8. Chapter 7: Hanging Around

**WOOHOO! I've reached 100 reviews for this story! Thanks SO MUCH everyone! Getting to 200 should be a piece o' cake!**

 **REVIEW REPLIES:**

 **Ontopoftheworld-ontopofitall:  
Great to know you liked it!  
'Cinnamon Toast Crunch'? WTF is that?**

 **Jonny Spectre:  
I have a funny feeling this review started as something more, but something happened as it was written…  
What is 'Lucky Charms' cereal?**

 **Emeraldalex123:  
Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, fuzzball.**

 **Sanaa11:  
What is 'Honey Stars' cereal?  
CHOCOLATE milk!? I've never thought of having THAT with cereal!  
Oh yes he will!**

 **Lisa Von Cooper:  
Ooh-hoo-hoo, so many questions! All of which will be answered eventually! Except for the Cybug one; what we've got is about all we'll ever get. You'll see what I mean later.  
Stilted? What do you mean?  
Yeah, you're not the first to have noticed this. I spotted it a while ago, and AirFireWaterEarth pointed it out as an issue. I've done my best to go back through the story so far and fix this, and I'm trying to make sure it doesn't happen in future, but you still may find moments when Vanellope isn't quite Vanellope. Sorry :(  
Coco-Pops are British? I thought they were Australian. Though really we took a lot from you guys, much moreso than the US, so meh. Still, it's interesting to know!**

 **Superfan44:  
Just realised your name has only one capital. Huh.  
More like HAD a dream of becoming a racer. Hanaekaptr was resistant to a similar idea a while back, but at least we agreed on the Gogo thing.  
The relationship will indeed unfold, though there won't be much drama in it, apart from the big reveal anyway.  
Mind enlightening me on what those cereals are?**

 **Samtastic 2.0:  
WHOA! Double-post there!  
I mentioned the bully situation all the way back in chapter 1, remember?  
The Baymax thing couldn't be helped. It made sense, and I **

**Jackfrostforever:  
Mmm! Toast! What do you put on it?**

 **Volttrooper23 devviantart:  
No you may not ask. All will be revealed in due time!**

 **Targrin112:  
They're shart compared to what I've been trying to do ever since I started getting into ****The Terribles** **.  
Rice Crisps sound slightly familiar, and I guess Chocopuffs must be similar to Coco-Pops, but what are the others?**

 **Pokemontrainerbonnie:  
Thanks!  
Not bad fic either, it's not everyday someone decides to assemble the Hoodie Squad!**

 **Ornstein the Dragon Slayer:  
Yep. Really.**

 **Everyone who commented on Baymax's advice:  
I feel a bit embarrased for actually writing that in, but I assumed it's what Baymax would've taken from the situation. Besides, Disney did almost the same thing in BH6, so it's not that weird.**

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Alright! I'm back! I'm SO sorry I'm late AGAIN guys! Had trouble finishing off the chapter.**

 **Anyways, here we have a chapter based off of the first scene me and my friend ever planned! This is kinda what inspired us, the scene in which Vanellope sits down with Hiro and complains about Ralph. The pic of the same name.**

 **On another, also FANTASTIC note, and as I'm very much sure you're aware by now, Hanaekaptr's back! She's finally gotten back to drawing comics again! She's slower than she used to be, and she IS taking a brief break for reasons, but soon enough we'll get the comics for chapters 5-7, and then we'll get back on track!**

 **Also, please note that, upon request by my friend, chapter 5 has been modified slightly to match her depiction of the HQ. It now includes a hangar and a better-outfitted training room.**

 **Anyway, back to THIS chapter, I urge you guys to read and, as always, enjoy!**

 **Chapter 7: Hanging Around**

Hiro pretty much pushed Vanellope through the doorway to the stairs, and then led her as they stepped up them toward Hiro and Cass' home above the café. Vanellope was smirking unceasingly at her red-faced friend, who seemed to shrink in embarrassment as they walked up the stairs together.

"Sooooo…" he breathed. "Those are my friends."

"Yup!" she agreed.

"They just want the best for me," he said. ", but they can be embarrassing, overbearing, infuriating and just right MEAN sometimes!"

"I like 'em!"

He turned to glare at her, prompting her to giggle again.

They reached the top of the stairs and stepped into the combined kitchen/dining/lounge room that made up most of the second floor of the Hamadas' house. The red-benched, square kitchen sat to the side off the room, and leading past it and the dinner table was the living room, filled with chairs, a TV and a coffee table. Opposite the kitchen in the room was Cass' room, walled off with a door near another set of stairs that lead up into the room belonging to Hiro himself.

Vanellope looked around and nodded at everything. Fourteen years can blur one's memories a lot, especially from when they were little, but when one'd been seeing a place for a whole year, even that long ago, they could remember what it looked like.

"Looks about right." She commented.

Hiro smirked again and grabbed her hand, leading her up those steps and into the one room that was actually fairly different from when they were kids.

Gone were the two beds near each other, drawers full of Lego Technic and robot parts. Instead the room was lined with various useful objects, such as a mirror, chest of drawers for clothes, and a big desk covered with various computers, tools and incomplete robot parts. Hiro's bed lay beneath one of the windows, and miscellaneous bits and pieces were scattered on the other side of the room. The cupboard right in front of the stairs was just as she remembered, though by the side of it where there was once a box of plush toys was now a red thing plugged into a power socket on the wall that Vanellope guessed was Baymax's case. **[1]**

But one of the most shocking changes, while not the least expected, was the divider that now stood closed on the corner of the room behind the cupboard. Van knew for a fact that that was where Tadashi's bed was, or had been. It was heartwrenching for Vanellope to see it closed, even more so for the reason why it was.

Vanellope turned to see her friend gazing sadly at the divider, something she could tell he'd done many times. She put a hand on his shoulder, and her immediately looked back at her and smiled a bit, sighing.

"Thanks, Van." He said.

He looked back at the divider, then he spoke again.

"People keep saying 'Tadashi's not really gone'," He told her. "', as long as we remember him.'"

He looked back at her.

"They're right." He told her. "Baymax's living proof."

"He's a robot." Van deadpanned, though she was smirking.

Hiro chuckled and shook his head.

"You know what I mean!" he chided. "He built Baymax to help people, and as long as he's around to do so, so is my brother."

She smiled, nodding.

"Pretty deep, coming from you." She noted.

Hiro shrugged.

"I grew up." He stated nonchalantly.

The nineteen-year-old supergenius walked over to the wheelie chair at his desk and sat down, turning to shake his computer from hibernation before spinning on his chair and facing Vanellope again, smiling relaxedly.

Van, meanwhile, moved to lean against the table's other end, looking down at the little bits of robot parts that covered it. She noted the various microbots that were part of the mix, looking basically tossed aside, while there was other stuff she didn't recognise nor understand.

"So," she asked, "What've you been up to lately?"

"Apart from just working on my projects? Not much to be honest." He replied. "My social life pretty much revolves around meeting my friends in the café every morning and evening, and my hobby is tinkering with robots, so I'm kinda dull in that respect."

Vanellope nodded, face scrunched in joke scrutiny as she looked around the room.

"Yeah, dull as a doornail." She agreed jokingly. "But at least your aunt's interesting!"

Hiro put on a mock-shocked face and clutch at his heart.

"Aw, I'm hurt!" he joked.

"Plus you've got the big, blubbery robo-nurse." She added. "He's kinda interesting."

Hiro chuckled as she looked over to the robot's open box, Hiro following her gaze there.

"That's his charger." He clarified. "It's basically the bottom half of his box, the sides and top fold into it."

She nodded. "Ya know, the big guy's pretty cool." She said, turning to look back at Hiro.

Vanellope turned her head round the room to look back at Hiro, but she stopped herself halfway. She did a double-take, and looked back to a bookshelf in the corner of the room. Sitting on the edge was a small, white plush toy. Round body, stubby arms and legs, and an undersize oval head.

It looked almost exactly like Baymax.

She ran over and picked it up, staring at it in wonder, the toy she'd given away to Hamada fourteen years ago. Smirking, she turned back and held it for him to see.

"Hey!" she shouted. "Look what I found!"

"Oh, whoa!" Hiro exclaimed. "It's that old toy!"

"The little Baymax I gave you years ago!" she walked back toward him, looking down at the toy.

"To be honest, I forgot I had that." Hiro confessed.

Vanellope hummed and folded her arms.

"'Forgot'?" she teased. "What happened to 'so you can remember me?"

"Oh, so you're a little white plush toy are ya?"

She shook her head, smiling. Hiro chuckled a bit.

"I didn't forget about _you_." He clarified, reaching out to take the toy. "Just the toy Baymax. Tadashi used it for reference back when he built Baymax, then when he was finished he must've put it on the shelf or something. I didn't realize it was even there."

"How did he even get the idea for the big guy?" Van asked one of the questions that had been plaguing her mind since the previous night. "I mean, how does one just wake up one morning and decide to build a robot doctor?"

Hiro stood up and sat down at the end of his bed near Vanellope, crossing his legs and holding the toy in his hands. Vanellope moved to lean against his desk again as he spoke.

"He wanted to help people, a lot." Hiro began. "When he got near the end of high school there was this big bus scare. There was a collision on the road, people got hurt. No one died, but one of Tadashi's OLD old friends didn't recover. He survived, but his legs were gone. Too much blood loss, they weren't properly dealt with at the time. So, when Tadashi's six A's and excellence in robotics club got him an offer from SFIT, he took it immediately with the idea for an on-site medical bot fresh in his mind.

"So he went through his first two years, doing a double major in Robotics and Bio-med, then when the time finally came for his third-year project he got to work. He had all the ideas he needed, what paramedic procedures he needed to code in, all that stuff, but he was having trouble with the design. He needed something quick and able. Something lightweight but strong enough to lift a grown man, and something that could effectively and quickly scan a potential patient.

"Ball-joint sockets and hyper-spectral cameras he'd already got down, but all of his primary prototypes were both too scary for any patients to let help them, AND had the potential to accidentally kill them while performing first-aid. He was completely stumped on a design that could work."

Hiro chuckled as he remembered.

"You should've seen him one night! Banging his head on the desk, shouting 'Nothing! No ideas! Usless. Empty. Brain!'. I went 'Wow. Washed up at twenty. So sad.'"

Van giggled.

"He turned on his chair to glare at me, then saw the toy we'd recently re-discovered on my bed. I was never very nostalgic until the fire, but hey, I was barely thirteen, and it was a toy. Anyway, he grabbed this thing and started drawing, and before I know it he's staying in his lab every evening working on his project. He kept this thing here for reference, but I never saw what he was building, nor did I actually CARE, until he showed me around the lab building, and he showed me his personal healthcare companion. Took him a year to make him, but yeah."

Vanellope smirked as he finished his story.

"Well," Van said, "He surely took his sweet time!"

Hiro laughed briefly, then smiled down at the toy.

"Tadashi realised something when he looked at this thing." He told her. "He always said 'Shake things up, use that big brain of your to think your way out, look for a new angle. You'll never know what good things it'll lead you too once you do.'" **[2]**

Vanellope hummed a laugh, smiling sadly.

"Guess he was right." She said.

"Yeah."

Hiro smiled sadly at the Baymax toy. Then he breathed in and out, letting out the melancholy tension that had settled in the room. Finally he dropped the plush toy to the ground next to him and smiled back up at Vanellope.

"So," he started on a new note. ", yesterday, I'm guessing you were there to check out the school?"

Vanellope started and shugged.

"Yeah, Ralph's been trying ta get me to go to college, and we've been checking out some places."

Hiro nodded, but then Vanellope sighed briefly and elaborated.

"Actually, he's somehow got it in his stink-brain that I want to go to a science institute, which is why we were at SFIT in particular. I mean, we both know I should be able to; he put me in Physics and Chemistry in high school, both of which I passed with straight-A's, but I'm just not interested in the stuff."

Hiro shrugged.

"Eh, it's not for everyone." He agreed. "And college science gets WAY more complicated then high school stuff. Uhh, not that you couldn't handle it." He added when Van mock-glared at him.

"It's just not… me." She finished, smiling annoyedly at the ground.

"Then what is 'you'?" Hiro asked.

"Bad English!" she giggled, then continued. "Well, I've spent the last four years doing dancing stuff with my friends, and I s'ppose you've guessed my old love of bike sports…"

"Guilty as charged."

"But apart from that it… just… I dunno!" she groaned.

She sat down with Hiro so she could talk to him easier, sitting between his legs at the foot of the small-width bed. Hiro leant back slightly, a bit flushed from the sudden close proximity and the smell of Vanellope's hair in his nose. Van herself didn't bat an eyelid as she absent-mindedly sat this close to her old friend, and just lent against one leg and waved a hand out in the air as she began speaking. **[3]**

"Ta be honest, all this is just stupid." She complained. "The last few months he's been tryin' ta get me to go to college, every time at these boring-ass science colleges that I couldn't give a crap about! 'Course, this was mainly before he lost his old job, but then he just HAD to get a job in another city!

"We were going alright. We had this nice house in Sacroshima, my friends and I were out doing our own thing, then suddenly Stinkbrain calls me and says he lost his job! So, for the next few months he tries to get a new job, while for me things carry on as normal, then he decides to get a job from some stupid old friend of his and we have to move! I had to sell my bike, my friends were upset, everything just went down the drain like _that_!"

She snapped her fingers.

"So when we get here, he ends up being REALLY busy at work, whatever his job is, and I'm left looking up boring homepages. So I call my friends over, and we plan this thing in the city. Only once we get there and we get things started this stupid supervillain barges in! Then these super-dorks arrive, then the police show up, and we got jailed for betting and all of a sudden Taffyta's mad at me-"

"WHOA, whoa, whoa, hold on!" Hiro interrupted her, frowning. "What do you mean, 'jailed for betting'?"

Vanellope's eyes widened as what she'd said dawned on her. She flinched, then slowly turned around to Hiro's face, suddenly seeming much more intimidating now he was concerned. She could only shudder to think what he'd be like when _angry_.

She slipped up. She just all-out told him what she'd been up to. The bad stuff his old best friend had got into since she left. She frightfully realised how disappointed me might be if she told him the full story.

But with his reproachful frown, she felt compelled to tell.

She rubbed her arms uncomfortably.

"I…" she began slowly. She had to break this to him _carefully_. "I kinda… me and my friends… became… pay-to-play dance battlers."

' _Nice. To-the-point. That's_ really _careful._ ' She scolded herself.

Hiro stared at her, though if she expected his draw to drop slightly in shock, she'd be disappointed.

"You started going out and dance battling for money?" he questioned, sounding both unimpressed and intrigued. Not that she picked up on that much.

She cringed internally. Then she snapped out of it and glared at him.

"Look, it was a group of three fourteen-year-old friends wandering out in town, and it was an offer for money, what would YOU have done!?" she burst out at him.

To her surprise, he leant back against the bed again and smiled slightly at her.

"I can't blame you." He answered, slightly sheepish. "I kinda did the same thing."

Now it was _her_ turn to frown.

"Meaning what?" she interrogated.

"Well," he sighed slightly. "You know how I've always been a supergenius."

"Mmm hmm."

"And you know how I skipped preschool back when we were kids?"

"When else would you'a skipped it?"

"Well, I also managed to skip through second, fourth and seventh grades, which meant that when I graduated I was thirteen years old and bored." He told her. "Tadashi kept pressuring me to enrol at SFIT, but I wasn't keen on the idea of people telling me stuff I already knew."

Van giggled a bit.

"So, what _I_ did with my intelligence was build a fighting robot, then I went out into the streets and hustled big-game bot-fighters for money."

The weight in her chest lifted at this, the revelation that her old best friend had done something very similar.

"But you quit doing it." She argued. "You started at SFIT five years ago!"

"Yeah, but only after Tadashi showed me that college is more about learning how to APPLY what we know in new ways." He said. "You need to learn to adapt I guess."

Vanellope nodded, looking down at the floor. Then she frowned.

"Wait, are you telling me to just give in to my uncle telling me what to do with my life?" she asked annoyedly.

"No, NEVER go on and do something you don't like doing." He advised. "Just change your ways a bit. Go join a dance club, or sign up at the SFDA."

"At the what?"

"San Fransokyo Dance Academy." He clarified.

Vanellope rolled her eyes, though it wasn't at him.

"Stinkbrain's so thick-minded he probably want listen if I tried to convince him to let me go there." She said.

"You're eighteen, right?" he said. "You CAN move out if you want to."

"Need a job first, OR help from Ralph." She disputed. "And don't think you can just help me move out, 'cause I'm not gonna get ya to spend money on me, and you know that Ralph for some reason has something against you."

"Judging by last night? Yeah, I know."

"It's not just that." She told him, turning to look at him. "When we got home from the school he said he'd changed his mind about sending me there! He said it was because of this showcase thing, but my uncle's a TERRIBLE liar. I KNOW he doesn't want me there because of you."

Hiro raised his eyebrow.

"Does he know you're visiting me?" he asked.

"I didn't know you were here until I saw you, so no way HE knows." She replied. "I just said I was going out for breakfast. Ralph'd used up all the cereal."

"He's gonna be annoyed if you tell him you were visiting me."

"Then I won't tell him." She said bluntly.

He shook his head, smirking eyes-shat as his friend.

"Fair enough." He said.

She turned to stare back at the opposite wall. The two fell into a comfortable silence, just sitting there at the foot of his bed. He unconsciously reached an arm around her waist, and she, just as unknowingly, leant back against him. He flushed as his nose filled with her hair-smell again, and turned away, clearing his throat.

"So…" he asked finally. "What's dance battling like?"

She frowned, slightly reluctant to answer.

"How about this:" she then said, turning to smirk at him. "An answer for an answer; I'll answer your questions if you answer mine."

He smirked cooly.

"Shweetz deal." He said.

She snorted, then turned a bit to face him and answered.

"Dance battling is… well it's fun, difficult, like most fights, it's give you a rush, as it's one of those things that are kinda barely against the law, when betting's involved anyway. It's not fun if it isn't."

He hummed.

"Plus if you irk the right competition you get REAL good bucks outa it."

Then it was her turn to ask a question.

"What about bot fighting?" she asked.

Hiro shrugged in reply.

"Haven't done it since I was fourteen, but I remember it being kinda the same, only a bit more risky." He said. "Not only could you get caught by the police, if you beat the wrong guys you could easily get beaten up."

She flinched in the telling.

"Luckily Tadashi would always get there before they could seriously hurt me, but seriously, DON'T mess with Yama, he's a big guy with REALLY tough cronies."

She nodded.

"My turn." He said. "Tell me about your friends from Sacroshima."

She raised an eyebrow at the rather demanding wording of the question, but smirked back at him before facing back into the empty room and answering.

"Well, Taffyta and Candlehead used to be my bullies." She said. "But once things settled down we became friends. Taffy's a bit of a bitch, she often teases me or has a low tolerance to stuff. She also has this fashion complex, she even has a blog and fusses over Candy's clothing, though she gave up on my ' _hideous_ ' sense of dress ages ago. She's cool though, usually a good friend, GREAT dancer.

"Candy's a bit kiddish. She gets overexcited and over-nervous a lot of the time, and sometimes doesn't see things for what they are. She's a bit naïve, and to be honest kinda stupid, but she's great ta have around. She was the first to get over the bullying incident.

"We were all friends up 'til recently, but then I tried to get us to start going to dance battles here in SF, and when we were there we were interrupted by this superhero battle, then the police arrived and they arrested us. Ralph bailed me, but not them. Now Taffyta's mad at me, and Ralph forbade me from visiting them to fix it."

She glared at the floor a moment. When Hiro didn't pry her to get her to continue, she turned back to him and asked her next question.

"Anyway," she asked. ", what about the 'nerd herd'?"

His frown returned to a smile, and he chuckled.

"Four of the three biggest nerds this side of Japafornia, as you can imagine."

Vanellope joined in in giggling.

"Fred isn't quite a nerd, he doesn't have the knowledge to invent stuff, but he likes thinking up new things. His ideas are… pretty crazy, but all of my friends have been inspired by some of them at least once. He LOVES comics, and is pretty quick to find nicknames for people.

"Honey's a bit excitable. She finds so many things adorable it's not even funny. She LOVES chemistry, likes coming up with chemical solutions to things, though she still hasn't found a way to turn Fred into a fire-breathing lizard like he wanted."

She giggled again.

"Gogo's an adrenalin-junkie, as you can imagine. She likes to go fast, and KEEP fast, which is why we never let her drive anything unless we're REALLY late to something. Seriously, you shoulda seen the time she took over driving from Wasabi once! She nearly wrecked his van, then drove it off the docks! Though, to be fair, that wasn't entirely her fault." He didn't elaborate.

"Wasabi's a bit neurotic, and a HELL of a neat-freak. Seriously, anything outa line, he freaks out! He used to be scared of a lot of things too. He was scared of unclean stuff, used to _hate_ how disorganised everyone was, and was TERRIFIED of heights! The last few years doing… uhh…"

Vanellope noticed as he trailed off, but didn't mention it while he come up with something to say.

"…regular skydiving tours… really helped him with that one." he finally answered. "The other things, not so much."

She chuckled again. She didn't quite believe him when he mentioned the skydiving, due to his apparent slip-up, but didn't bring it up as he finished talking.

"Our friends are kinda crazy, hey?" she commented.

He chuckled with her and nodded.

"Yep, they sure are."

When neither of them asked a question, they ended up just sitting there in each other's company, both thinking about things. Hiro had some pretty cool friends, but meanwhile she needed to find a way to make it up to hers. She leant backward and looked up at the ceiling to think.

It was only then that she realised their positions, sitting rather close together, _embracing_ for lack of a better term, in the middle of his bedroom. And SHE'd been the one to instigate this.

Vanellope turned red and cleared her own throat, moving to stand up and coming up with an excuse.

"I-I better go." She said quickly as she found her feet and looked back at him. "Ralph might get a bit suspicious and think I've been out dancing again."

Hiro let out a breath he didn't know he had and nodded, moving to stand up.

"I'll walk you out." He offered.

So the two friends walked back down the two sets of stairs and back out into the café again, Hiro leading her through the shop to the doors. She waved back to the nerd herd (still barely getting over the fact that one of them was THE _Ethel Tomago_ ) and Baymax before saying goodbye to Hiro and stepping back out into the street, feeling much better than before and completely refreshed, and started walking back to the apartment.

Hiro, meanwhile, watched her go a minute before turning and walking back to his friends' table.

"So, how'd things go?" Wasabi questioned.

"Get up to much stuff, or were you trying to keep your hands off each other?" Gogo teased.

"Guys, seriously!?" he exclaimed as he sat back down at his place at the table.

"Awww!" Honey cooed. "You two are so CUTE together!"

"You find EVERYTHING cute." He accused.

"I'd say you make quite a couple!" Fred said. "And I haven't said that since Tadashi couldn't take his eyes off Honey!"

For the first time in living memory, Honey Lemon blushed.

"It was only when we met, it wasn't THAT big." She said bashfully, hiding behind her coffee mug.

"Oh come on!" Gogo denied. "We all saw you guys' glances all year! You can't deny it!"

"ANYWAY," she interrupted. "What kinda stuff did you talk to your friend about, Hiro?"

Hiro shrugged as all eyes returned to him.

"Just stuff." He replied. "I talked about Baymax, she talk about dance battling, I talked about bot fighting, we both talked about our friends and what we're doing and stuff."

Most of their mouths dropped and tension suddenly hung in the air as Hiro realised what he'd said.

"Don't tell me you told her about you-know-what." Gogo growled, glaring at him.

"No, no!" he held his hand up in defence. "I stopped short of telling her about that. I mean telling her what you guys are like. I stopped at mentioning Wasabi's old fear of heights."

Wasabi shivered as Honey and Fred breathed sighs of relief. Gogo, however simply turned her scowled on her latte mug, still not entirely impressed.

"That was a dangerous subject to talk about." She stated. "You know why we shouldn't be talking about this stuff to other people."

"Thanks _Stan_ , I got that!" He back-talked. "I know how dangerous it would be if it got out."

He looked to the middle of the table, thinking.

"But Vanellope… I dunno. She's a friend."

"An _old_ friend."

"And you don't see ME mouthing off to Sticky, do you?" Fred added.

Hiro looked up at the concerned parental expressions of his teammates and friends. He sighed.

"Yeah, maybe you're right." He breathed, resting his elbows on the table. "It's best she doesn't know."

* * *

 **[1] Lego Techinc is good for constructing stuff, a good precursor to Lego Mindstorms, and then actual robotics.**

 **[2] Inspired by Hanaekaptr's 'New Angle' pic!**

 **[3] And this is where we essentially get to the moment in Hanaekaptr's picture of the same name, though with some key differences, given that in the pic the two have been together for years, where in this case they've only just got back together.**

 **Not quite happy with how I wrote this, but if Hanaekaptr likes it I suppose it's fine.**

 **Once again, I'm SO sorry for making you guys wait for three whole weeks! Stuff got in the way and this chapter was REALLY hard to write. I'm setting up an old system that should allow me to push out chapters once a week again. I hope.**

 **Anyway, next time is when we get back into the actual plot and storyline, and the villain we met back in chapter 4 makes his first move:**

 **Next Time: Chapter 8: Breakout**


	9. Chapter 8: Breakout

**REVIEW REPLIES:**

 **AirFireWaterEarth:  
Lol!  
I'm afraid to say Hiccup and the gang don't exist in this version. It's just the world of Big Hero 6 with characters from Wreck-It Ralph involved. When I start my next story, the start of a series, many more worlds will collide, and characters from HTTYD will meet some from Brave, Frozen, BH6 and more, but it won't be the world of Big Hero Glitch.**

 **Jonny Spectre:  
So It's basically colourful marshmallows?  
I dunno why you think she's gonna do that. It's not in the plan, and she doesn't exactly have a reason to do it.  
Actually, I suppose she could take it to break Taffy and Candy out, but that would be kinda counter-productive since they'd then be on the run, probably from the BH6. Not to mention the fact that the suit isn't even built yet, there's only a prototype device.  
Besides, where would the mystery guy we found in ch4 fit into this? Same with Cybug's boss, these bad guys are the ones who'll rock this story.  
Tell ya what, if you can get someone to write that version of the story and post it, I'll read and review, cause while that isn't quite something I'd like to write, I'd definitely LOVE to read it!**

 **Miss Wipplesnit:  
Oh, hello! Didn't expect to see you here!  
Yes, we see Swizz again in a few chapters' time, then again at the end of the story, and I think the plan is to add a shiptease with you in the epilogue…**

 **AUTHOR'S INTRO:**

 **Hello again!**

 **Okay, so the system didn't work as well as I thought this week, on account of my getting bad nights. It should work from now on, so long as I get to sleep earlier, but no promises.**

 **On the plus side I have a week's holiday in three weeks, then again in another three weeks, then I'll be on proper holiday two weeks after THAT, and if everything goes well it'll be a fifteen-week-long gap year. What that means for you guys is hopefully that I'll be able to start pushing out chapters once every 1-3 days, which'll be amazing. Keep in mind that half of those will be of my other story Snow White: An Unexpected Journey, but It'll still be a chapter of BHG once every 2-6 days, which'll be fantastic.**

 **Anyway, Hanaekaptr's now going to college, and what with a number of problems she's been going through she hasn't had much time to do any drawing, so that's why yet again there is no preview comic. Hopefully things'll work out better soon.**

 **Anyway, I have nothing else to add, so, enjoy!**

 **Chapter 8: Breakout**

The San Fransokyo Police Station's below-ground jail was unusually quiet. During the day the social floors would be filled with noise, usually grunts and chatter, and the occasional punch followed by the sound of someone being dragged down to solitary on one of the lower floors. At night however, after what Taffyta could hardly call a 'dinner', things quietened down as everyone was ordered to return to their cells and keep quiet.

The past day in jail had done nothing to stem Taffyta's bad mood. The prison stank of sweat and bad man-smell, and the ridiculous orange suits were nearly enough to make her gag. All the meals were the same, basically baked beans with a side of various vegetables she didn't even know the name of, and the only drinks they could get were tap water. TAP water!

What's more, the shower system was stupid. They could go shower any time in the day, but the taps were broken, leaving them with pretty much three settings: too hot on full blast, too cold on full blast, and off. They didn't even have any privacy in there, as the stupid guards needed to be sure where everyone was at any time. Being ogled while trying to shower under either boiling or freezing water? No thanks.

There was nothing she could do to liven up her and Candlehead's cell, nor keep them from getting bored. All electronics had been confiscated, including her prised phone, so she couldn't keep up her blog, meaning that all her followers were surely getting bored and leaving; they didn't let them practice their dancing, so they were probably getting fat, or WOULD be if they had actually eaten the slop they'd been given; they didn't even give them a pencil and paper for her to sketch dress designs on! The entire system was designed to keep them as bored as possible!

Candlehead had been quick to bounce back from her distress over the argument, and had started their day with her usual bouncy, bubbly, child-like attitude. It had survived through breakfast, though dampened, but quickly disintegrated as the day went on. By the time they returned to their cell, Candlehead collapsed on her 'bed' and frowned, an unusual sight for Candlehead.

It seemed that the only thing they could do to keep from being bored was talk, and there wasn't really anything to talk about. They couldn't talk about the usual things they talked about because A: they had no access to the blog, B: They couldn't practice dancing, and C: Vanellope wasn't there to have an idea.

All of this had just made Taffyta more salty about Vanellope. Hadn't she promised she'd bail them? Right now it seemed that she'd just left them there to rot and die of boredom, though rationally she knew Vanny wouldn't do that. She couldn't think what had distracted her enough to stop her just asking her uncle a simple question, but something HAD to be up.

So this is what led Taffyta to be laying on her 'bed' with her arms folded over her scrubs, glaring at the dark ceiling and trying to ignore the light from the night guard that occasionally flashed over them. She turned her head as Candlehead occasionally moaned, unsure whether her friend was asleep or awake. She knew Candlehead didn't usually have nightmares, so she was probably either as upset about their new living conditions as Taffyta was, or she was finding a hard time falling asleep on their bench-beds.

Each time she did this Taffyta would look over to check she was okay, then sigh and return to staring at the ceiling, letting the night guard believe she was asleep. Not that she could sleep if she wanted to; the benches were completely flat and solid with no give. Would it kill them to give the prisoners foam mattresses, if anything? They didn't even have any blankets!

All in all, Taffyta was extremely NOT happy about how things had happened, and in her mind it was still all down to Vanellope. Which just led her back to mulling over her thoughts about what had happened and when _Vivian_ was gonna realise she left them there.

It was late at night when Taffyta was finally roused from boredom by a noise. The clang of a metal door, and the sound of the lift going down. It was odd, this late at night, but she shrugged it off, thinking it was one of the night guards changing shifts. Was it midnight already?

* * *

But inside the lift wasn't a guard changing shifts. It was a different figure.

The lift went down and down, finally coming to a stop on the tenth floor down. This is where the worst of the worst were kept.

The lift doors opened to reveal a small, square entrance room, walled with solid lead and with another set of doors opposite the lift, next to which on either side was a three-phase set of electronic locks. The first was a key pad, with a personal-input password. The second was a handprint scanner, meaning only certain people had the authorisation to get in. And finally was a set of dual-linked buttons, which would have to be both pressed down at the same time within one second of each other, like a nuclear launch silo, so that no one could open it on their own.

Two authorised personnel who knew the passwords would be required to open these doors. Luckily for this guy, he had a way around that.

He reached into his suit and grabbed a pair of small, round devices, placing them at identical positions on the locks on either side. Then he drew out a palmtop computer and began hacking away at the system. Within moments the devices lit up, and the doors opened.

He smirked. He was in.

* * *

Taffyta was confused when the noise of the lift returned a few minutes later, followed by the sound of the lift opening again, on THIS level. Then a dull CLUNK was heard from one end of the hallway, then a clang and a thud.

Curious, she stood up and walked to the bars, looking out and to the right to see the night guard lying in the middle of the hall on his stomach, torch lying to the side. A pool of blood was forming around him, spreading from his head.

Taffyta quickly looked away, eyes clenched tight and trying not to hurl. A million thoughts raced through her head. Was the night guard dead? Who killed him? Why were they here? Would someone clean up the floor before she was sick?

Then she heard footsteps, across the floor, though the blood (she retched), all the time coming closer and _closer_.

She quickly shuffled away from the bars and lay back down on the bench, her back to the bars, making sure to not move an inch. The steps started walking past the cell, and the shadow of a large-ish head on a smaller body stepped into view, lit up by the fallen night guard's flashlight onto the wall in front of her. She held her breath in fear.

Then the footsteps stopped with the shadow. Then she heard the sound of someone turning on the spot. That meant they were either facing the cell opposite them or…

"No need to be frightened missy." A male voice said.

Her eyes widened. The person in the opposite cell was a man.

This guy was talking to HER.

"W-what do you want?" she asked, not turning her head.

"A good question." She could hear the smirk in his voice. "But not the right one for right now."

Shakingly, she turned her head over slightly, looking up to the shadow on the wall.

"Then… who are you?"

She heard the man chuckle, and she watched the shadow's head tilt back and convulse briefly.

"Better." He said after a moment. "I am just a humble benefactor, and I have an offer you and your friend might want to hear."

After a few moments, the usually cool-attitude girl that was now terrified pushed herself up into a sitting position and turned to look at the man visiting them.

Despite the massive shadow on the wall, this man was actually fairly short. Four feet tall, with a round, balding head and dark brown hair, he had a bulbous nose, brown eyes and wash wearing a purple velvet suit. He stood relaxedly, hands behind his back, gazing calmly, yet creepily, at Taffyta in a way that made her uneasy. **[1]**

She didn't know why, but this guy creeped her out.

"We're not interested." She said.

The guy through his head back and shook a bit with a laugh that was just as creepy as HE was.

"Ohh-hoo-hoo!" he chuckled, then sobered a bit. "Are you sure?"

She almost growled from this psychopath's persistence. She clenched her fists on her bench top and channelled her anger at Vanellope at him.

"We're NOT interested!" she snarled through clenched teeth.

But the man didn't back down, didn't turn away or even frown. Instead he kept standing there, and held his steady and creepy smirk at her.

"You're gonna speak for your friend?" He asked, clearly amused. "Not even gonna let her decide for herself?"

Taffyta didn't think twice about it before deciding she didn't want Candlehead getting mixed up with his guy. He was creepy, and she was pretty sure he'd just killed a police officer. AND he was in a purple business suit which, besides giving her the impression he was from some shady tech company, gave him a dress sense almost as bad as Vanellope's. Almost.

Unfortunately Candy made the decision for her. Candlehead tossed and turned again, distressed, and Taffyta instinctively got up and ran over to her. Before she could reach the younger girl, her eyes shot open, and Candlehead squeaked in surprise when she saw the guy and toppled off the bench onto the hard concrete floor.

"Candy!" Taffyta cried as she reached her, kneeling down to check if she was alright.

Candlehead groaned and she started pushing herself up, removing her legs from the bench where they still were and sitting up, hand on her head.

"You okay?" Taffyta asked her.

After a moment, Candlehead shook her head to clear it and nodded.

Then she opened her eyes and started, staring at the mystery guy outside their cell. Taffyta, arm around Candlehead, followed her gaze there.

"Ohh-hoo-hoo! How sweet!" he chuckled almost mockingly. "The mother bear looking after her cub."

Taffyta frowned and glared, before helping her friend to her feet. Candlehead kept looking at the guy in fear, not breaking her scared gaze.

One thing's for sure, if CANDLEHEAD was unnerved by someone, they were DEFINITELLY someone to be afraid of.

Taffyta held her glare, and Candlehead her stare as she stuttered:

"W-who's that?"

The man in the velvet suit opened his mouth to speak, only for Taffyta to cut him off.

"A madman." She said scornfully.

The man shook his head and tutted.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Miss Taffyta, you wound me."

The platinum-blonde started, eyes wide in surprise. Candlehead turned to look at Taffyta, only to find her just as clueless as she was.

"H-how do you know who I am?" Taffyta asked, fear finally settling into her voice again.

The man didn't hesitate in his answer.

"Oh, I hacked into the CCTV footage last night." He said nonchalantly. "I saw everything. You comforting your friend, all of you said each of your names. You're not the most… secure person, are you, Candlehead?" **[2]**

The younger girl shivered and whimpered and cuddled backward into Taffyta's arms in fright at the mention of her name by a complete stranger, bringing her fists to her mouth to keep her teeth from chattering, not breaking her line of sight from him. Taffyta just hugged to girl tighter and glared at the strange man for his forwardness as he continued.

"I saw everything that happened." He repeated. "The argument with your other friend… what was her name again? Vanellope?"

"Ow." Candlehead muttered. Taffyta was now digging her fake nails into her shoulders.

"That girl did you a lot of wrong." He now appeared sorry for them, though his previous behaviour proved otherwise. "You were right, she should of left you back in the city, stayed in touch, left your to your own lives, found a new one for herself. But no, instead she called you into another adventure, only to drag you into something you didn't want a part of."

"Get to the point!" Taffyta spat.

The man smirked again, and stared directly at them.

"I can offer you a way to get back at her." He told them. "I can take you to my place, where I can help you make her pay for bringing you here."

Taffyta almost scoffed.

"Well unless you can cheat the officers into letting us go, that's not gonna happen," She said. "And even then, like we're gonna do something THAT seriously bad."

"Well I can't just con police officers, now can I?" he conceded, but then he continued: "But something IS about to happen. When it does, you will have a choice."

The man reached into his suit and pulled something out, and he opened his palm flat to reveal two earpieces to the girls.

"Take these, and I can guide you out of here to my car, parked in an alley a few blocks away." He instructed. "Or, you can get caught by Simmons and her buffoons, and spend another few years in here."

He didn't explain anything, but Taffyta got the gist: He was gonna break them out. How he was gonna do that was unclear, but they were likely gonna find out pretty soon.

Taffyta didn't like the idea. Betting on the outcome of a dance competition was one thing, but taking part in a breakout with a psychopath that had just probably killed a police officer? SERIOUSLY not cool.

Keeping up her frown, she shook her head no.

"I've told you before, and I'll say it again:" she spat forcefully, "We're. Not. Interested!"

He smirked and raised an eyebrow, though when she didn't make any signs of changing her mind he sighed and simply tossed the two earpieces over to Candlehead's bench. The girl shied away from them slightly into Taffyta, who eyed the things carefully before returning to glaring at the guy who threw them.

"Well then," he said as he slipped his hands behind him again, "I guess I'll be taking my leave."

He turned towards the lift and began to walk away from the cell, but not before calling back:

"I'm sure you'll make the right choice!"

Taffyta kept glaring at the edge of the cell bars even as the mystery guy disappeared, leaving only his footsteps behind. It was only when they heard the lift chime and slide up that she realised Candlehead was squirming.

"Uhh, Taffy?" the younger girl whined, "You're clawing my shoulders!"

At that Taffyta finally snapped out of her glare and quickly let go with an apology, letting the distressed girl rub at her sore spots where Taffyta's nails had been digging in.

"Think he's gone?" she asked, looking back at Taffyta.

The platinum-blonde gave the bars where he'd been standing a brief glare before turning away, with the intention of going back to lying on her side in her 'bed', only to end up scowling at the hard bench that would offer no sleep whatsoever, especially with the late night guard's torch shining down to hallway into their cell.

She turned and looked back at the devices on Candy's bench. She didn't like that guy, and neither did CANDLEHEAD of all people, so that counted for something. He wanted to break them out of prison, which was bad, and help then get back at…

Vanellope. She got them into this mess, and just left them here, DESPITE what she said. Though Taffyta knew Ralph probably knew about the dance 'fighting', as he called it, she could'a sworn he'd be nice enough to bail them too if Van'd asked.

Which left the notion that _Vivian_ had either just decided to leave them here or had plain FORGOTTEN about them! What an absolute B****!

She walked back over, then picked up and looked at one of the earpieces the man had left. He said he'd help them get back at Vanellope, whatever that meant. Problem is, that'd be breaking the law. Brushing over the fact that they were in her for betting anyway.

She looked back at the cold concrete cell. Doing what creepy psychopath says and taking part in a jailbreak in exchange for apparently getting back at Vanellope, verses staying in a prison with no privacy, no comforts, and a whole heap of boredom.

' _What the hell._ ' She thought. ' _We're already in here for breaking the law. What's a little more gonna do?_ '

Setting her face with a scowl focussed on Vanellope, Taffyta hooked the earpiece in her ear.

"W-what are you doing?" Candlehead asked, staring at Taffyta.

Still glowering, the platinum-blonde stepped back over to the bench, picking up and handing the remaining earpiece to Candlehead. The younger girl backed away from it, staring at it with the same expression she'd just given mystery guy.

"Hey, we'll at least go along with him to find out what he means by 'get back at Vanellope'." Taffyta appeased Candy.

Peer pressure from Taffyta building up, like it always had ever since the bullying days, Candlehead shakingly took the device from her and looked fearfully down at it.

"Besides," Taffyta added, prompting her friend to look back up at her, ", it's better than staying in a dark, dank cell for six months."

Candlhead looked back down at the device and swallowed fearfully. Then she reached up and hooked it around her right ear before looking back at Taffyta.

"N-now what?" she asked.

As if on cue, a series of CLANGS, one after another, stared echoing from the other end of the cell-hall. One after another, the cells' electronic locks snapped into shutdown, and every single one of them slid open. Following this came the groans of drowsy, grumpy criminals as every single one was woken up by the racket, mostly the dancers and gamblers from the previous night.

Taffyta's eyes widened. It wasn't just a jailbreak. The guy was causing a mass-breakout!

Soon the place would be swarming with bad guys, which would complicate things a bit. Worse, someone up in the station would've heard that, meaning that, perhaps even before all the criminals started running, Simmons would be down here to corner them.

"Quick!" She whispered to Candlehead. "Before the Sargent gets down-"

" _NO!_ "

She stopped as she was about the run out when the mystery guy's voice blared through the earpieces.

" _Wait for my signal._ " He ordered.

She nodded, then agreed verbally when she realised he probably couldn't see them.

She pulled Candlehead down behind the bench as the enormous man in the cell opposite started getting up and looked out his cell. Not that they really needed to hide from him, but it was a good hiding spot from the guards.

Chuckling, menacing laughter began echoing from the various open cells throughout the hall, and true enough, soon gamblers were filling the cell blocks. There weren't many REALLY bad guys running around the place, just betters like the ones at the dance battle the night before. Thieves and worse criminals were on the lower floors.

Then the lights flashed on, and they heard lift doors opening again, followed by Sargent Simmons barking orders at the criminals. When that didn't work, she turned new orders onto her fellow officers. The gambling community wasn't entirely violent, but in a situation like this they were surely not placid. As the two girls watched, people began rushing toward the lift, and they heard people punching other people. Both of them flinched at the sound of a gunshot from one of the officers.

"This is a REALLY bad idea!" Candlehead worried to Taffyta.

But Taffyta, unusually, just placed a hand on the younger girl's shoulder in an attempt to calm her.

"Just wait for the signal." She told her, not looking away from the opening to the cell.

There were more gunshots, and some screams of pain. Mainly complaints like "MY LEG! MY LEG!" or something along those lines, so they could tell Simmons wasn't killing them.

Then, without warning, a loud, yet muffled BANG, and the sound of concrete crumbling down to the floor, followed by a number of screams of pain. Then near silence, only a few malicious chuckles from some gamblers still standing. The lift slid up in the background, signalling that criminals from further down were also free, and escaping.

" _It's okay, girls,_ " the mystery man said to them. " _, you can come out now._ "

Sharing a brief nervous look with Candlehead, Taffyta stood up and stepped around the bench out of the cell. Looking down the hall, she almost stumbled back. A massive section of the roof in front of the lift had collapsed, burying most of the fighters underneath it, with only a few gamblers remaining to climb over it. She could see Sargent Simmons lying under the rubble, unconscious, a fair gash on her head leaking blood. If anyone else under there survived she couldn't see them.

Candlehead joined her in the hallway, and immediately gasped and looked away. Taffyta couldn't blame her. Whatever had just happened was terrible.

" _Like my handiwork?_ " the man _chuckled_.

And this guy had caused it.

"You're a psychopath." Taffyta spat, glaring at the pile of rubble.

" _Yes I am._ " The guy agreed without missing a beat. " _But if you wanna get back at your so-called friend, you better do as I say._ "

' _All this to get a good night's sleep._ ' She thought wryly.

Gingerly, she reached out to the still distraught Candlehead.

"Come on." She said. "Let's go."

"But those people…" Candlehead choked out without looking at her.

Taffyta took a look at her, and briefly felt really bad. Candlehead looked identical to last night, after her fight with Vanellope.

Then she sighed internally at how innocent her friend still was, despite being eighteen. AND a gambler.

"We gotta go!" she insisted, and began pulling her toward the rubble pile. It was surprisingly slow progress, what with Candlehead keeping her eyes shut so she didn't have to see the horrible sight, and with Taffyta herself trying not to wretch from the combination of the blood, the smell, and the concrete dust in the air.

As it turned out the lift doors were blocked, but the rubble pile acted as a perfect ramp out of the prison anyway, leading directly into the night air right outside the police station. As the cool breeze hit them, so did the sound and red flashing lights of the station's alarms, and they could hear the officers inside the building running around, and grunts of pain from some trying, and most likely failing, to detain the escapees from down below.

Taffyta was just happy to take a breath of fresh air, while Candlehead finally opened her eyes again as she stood up, still wrecked by the sight of the rubble pile.

" _Good job._ " The mystery man told them.

"You know, we could've thought to use the rubble pile without you." Taffyta growled.

" _Or ended up_ under _it._ " He reasoned. " _Not a good place to get your revenge from._ "

Taffyta flinched. It sounded WAY worse when he called it 'revenge'. Reminded her of what they were doing, and how bad it was.

Ignoring him, she looked up and around. They were outside the wall of the police station, in a wide alley bordered by buildings, and with a smaller alleyways leading off at the end of it where the police station building stopped. A red alarm light spun above them next to the intercom speaker, both at the top of the wall behind them.

"Hey! You!"

The two turned to the street at the end of the alley to see two officers running towards them, batons out.

" _Down the middle alley!_ " the mystery guy said. " _Quickly!_ "

Almost grudgingly, Taffyta and Candlehead leapt off running, starting down where the guy had told them to away from the police officers. It was almost like a bike chase, Taffyta realised, except without the bikes, and with the officers right behind them instead of in the streets nearby. And it was considerably less fun, considering everything.

The mystery guy gave the orders to turn left and right, dodging out of the sight of the two officers and breaking them off their tail. It took a number of attempts, but finally the police officers stops following.

As soon as the mystery guy announced this (though how he knew he didn't say), Taffyta and Candlehead stopped running by a dumpster to catch their breaths. Taffyta leant her back against the dumpster, throwing her head back and putting a hand on her stomach, while Candlhead held herself with her hands on her knees, huffing terribly for someone who could breakdance better than almost anyone.

Taffyta looked down to her friend and asked, "You okay?"

"I prefer bikes." She replied after a moment to breathe.

Unfortunately their moment of rest was interrupted by their psychopathic saviour.

" _Good job._ " He complimented. " _Now, get to the end of the alley and turn left. At the end of that you'll find a car with me and my henchmen. There you'll be blindfolded and taken to my HQ._ "

Candlehead looked up at Taffyta for some sign of agreement to this. Taffy bit her lip, looking away, before looking back at Candlehead and saying:

"Better than getting arrested again."

The younger girl slumped, distressed, but finally stood up and nodded concernedly at her friend.

After another minute's breather, they headed down the alley like the man said, coming to the end of the left turn to find, of all things, a limo, next to which was their mystery madman, along with three big, for lack of a better term, thugs.

One of the two, big, burly, mean-looking men turned to the far smaller man in the purple velvet suit, who didn't turn his smirk away from the girls even as he nodded. The thug looked back to them.

"You're coming with us." The thug said. It wasn't a question.

Taffyta and Candlehead shared another look, one afraid and the other tired and uncomfortable with this, but compliant. They turned, Taffyta nodding at the thugs before stepping forward, allowing two of them to snap the cold carbon-fibre blindfolds on their faces before pushing them into the limo. The doors slammed, assumedly with all three thugs and the mystery guy inside, before the limo's engine started up and drove off.

Taffyta barely registered the fact that she hadn't gotten any sleep since arriving in San Fransokyo before letting the engine of a limo owned by a high-ranking criminal lull her to sleep.

What a surreal and terrifying predicament they'd gotten themselves in.

* * *

 **[1] Yes, this guy is based on King Candy, even though I already mentioned a King Candy earlier on. This guy is more inspired by the character himself rather than what he did to Vanellope.**

 **[2] Virtual muffins for whoever gives me something better than 'strong-willed' for that sentence. And trust me when I say, my muffins are delicious!**

 **I think I wrote Taffyta's character correctly, unlike my apparent lack of success with Vanellope.**

 **Yeah, a bit graphic, but not as bad as some fics, and not as bad as I'll get in my next superhero series I'm planning. I won't go too far, I promise, but this isn't the light-hearted world of CGI films here. This is those characters in the world of Avengers-level violence. Just keep that in mind.**

 **As they say, don't like, don't read.**

 **Now I hope you guys understand that while this fic involves the Vaniro ship, and was based off of a shipping idea by my good friend Hanaekaptr, this story DOES have a big plot around it. In reality, it's a superhero story based around a ship. Not just a straight-up Vaniro ship-fic.  
Though really you guys probably figured that out from chapter 4, what with the suit and mystery guy.**

 **Right, so, next time the news spreads fast to Vanellope and Ralph, while the BH6 have a crime scene to check out.**

 **Oh, and BTW, Simmons is still alive.**

 **Next Time: Chapter 9: Crime Scene**


	10. Chapter 9: Crime Scene

**REVIEW REPLIES:**

 **Miss Wipplesnit:  
Thanks!  
'Independent' is good, but still not quite close enough to what I was going for.**

 **Johnny Spectre:  
Well I suppose it could be written from where this left off in the previous chapter, or completely start from the beginning or something. IDK, it was an idea.  
*Snorts* You have great imagination, ya know that?  
That's once again not exactly what we have in mind, but it's closer!**

 **Superfan44:  
That's the thing about Taffyta, once you have Mindy Kaling's voice in your head, you've got her in seconds! Helps that Taffy and Disgust from ****Inside Out** **are nearly interchangeable.  
Ohh-hoo-hoo! A lot of speculation and wondering going on! Welp, you won't have to wait too long hopefully, because a lot of stuff happens in the next few chapters!  
I will!**

 **101olive4u:  
Great name BTW =)  
Well, we DO see the boys again, but Taffy and Candy don't run into them 'til the end. Vanny meets them though.  
No, they are NOT evil! They're just in a bit of spot, they'll realise soon enough that things are not good, and in the end they'll do what they can to fix it. You'll see!  
*sighs* I'll update as soon as I can, but you people (and this goes for pretty much everyone, ESPECIALLY the guests) NEED to stop rushing me!**

 **TheDisneyFan365:  
Thanks!**

 **SamtasticV2.0:  
Spoilers!**

 **AUTHOR'S INTRO:**

 **Aloha! I'm once again sorry for the delay. Late last week I had sleeping troubles, so I was tired, so I didn't get much done on this. But we're here now, and I'm gonna try getting things out faster from now on. This means more sleep, and hopefully more chapters quicker.**

 **Also, my friend's ended up pretty busy, and hasn't had time to draw any more on the comics, so THAT's been held off for a while yet. We'll see how things go from now on, 'cause a lot of things have to settle before she's back on par.**

 **But, apart from those things, I'm back! And here, just for you guys, I have a nice long chapter covering the aftermath of the breakout in the previous chapter!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **P.S. One more thing: I fixed up one line back in ch4 to suit what makes sense and to suit this chapter. If you want you can check out the change, but TBH it doesn't really matter. Just read this one.**

 **Chapter 9: Crime Scene**

 **Next Morning, 7:50 AM**

" _Last night, a mass-breakout occurred at the San Fransokyo Police Station. According to reports, 90% of the criminals inside escaped, only a few of whom the police managed to round up quickly. Word is that an explosion occurred near the Station, causing a partial collapse on the first jail level. Sargent Tamora Simmons and a number of officers were blockading escaping gamblers right under the blast point when it occurred, killing two officers and three of the jailed gamblers. The Sargent has recovered, but has yet to give us any details on this breakout…_ "

It was the next morning, after Van's little trip to the café, and Vanellope was planning on getting up after Ralph had left and head over to the café and just talk to Cass, as Hiro would be at SFIT and his friends would be at their jobs. Then she HAD to turn on the TV.

Almost the moment she grasped what had happened, she lunged back to her room to grab her earpiece phone, then jumped back into the kitchen/dining room and jammed the device into her ear to call her friends. She knew their own phones had been confiscated, but at least she could try to find out whether they were still in the SFPS.

After a few moments the tone stopped.

" _SFPD._ " Came the answer from a stressed-sounding Tamora Simmons.

"Aunt Tammy!?"

" _Vanellope?_ " She replied with surprise. " _What—why are you calling this phone?_ "

"That's my friend Taffyta's phone." Vanellope told her. "I just found out about the breakout. Is Taffy and Candy still there?"

Tamora was silent on the other end for a moment before answering.

" _I'm afraid your friends escaped in the breakout._ " She finally replied, tiredly.

Vanellope furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She could've sworn her friends wouldn't do such a thing. Taffyta was too stuck-up with sticking to the law, besides the gambling thing, and Candlehead was far too innocent to even dream of breaking out.

"No." She argued into the phone. "That's not like them. They would never-"

" _Well the proof's all here, in their EMPTY CELL!_ " She pretty much yelled. " _How do you explain THAT, Short-Stack!?_ "

Vanellope bit her lip and turned to look worriedly back at the TV. Her friends could be anywhere, and for what reason? They shouldn't've done that, been part of the breakout. Now they were somewhere in the city, hiding from the police. Was Taffyta just THAT pissed off that she forced Candlehead to help her break out? Or rather, help her get out amongst the chaos of every criminal and supervillain in jail ALSO getting out.

Finally, Tamora sighed and spoke again.

" _Listen, kid._ " She said. " _We're all working to round up the bad guys who got out, in fact I've already called in the Big Hero 6 to help find out what happened with the explosion, as well as get back all the supervillains who got out, but if we can I'll spare some people to put your friends on priority. Just don't get excited. There are now a lot of far worse people at large in the city._ "

On cue, the reporter on the TV finished her story.

" _... have recommended that everyone should stay in their homes while the police and the Big Hero 6 round up the supervillains, and if you do need to go out to take extra caution on the streets. Carmen Garret, Action 7 News._ " **[1]**

Vanellope nodded to her auntie, though Tamora couldn't see her.

"Okay, thanks." She said. "I'll keep that in mind."

" _No problem, kid._ "

The Sarg hung up, and Vanellope turned off the TV and slumped where she stood, frowning worriedly.

So, now Taffyta not only hated her, but had specifically broken out of prison with Candlehead among every other criminal in San Fransokyo. Nearly every single bad guy in the city was at large, and somehow her friends had got caught up with them. That only left the question of how on Earth the entire prison got sprung.

She grumbled in annoyance as she imagined Ralph coming home from his stupid job and saying to her "I told you so!". Not that he had any credibility on the matter of HER friends.

* * *

"Yes, I know, we've got officers scouring the city for them."

Sargent Gerson paced outside the SFPS, reassuring his wife over the phone.

"Sargent Simmons has tasked me to wait for the Big Hero 6 at the station…" he said. "No, it's… don't worry, we'll make sure Yama doesn't attack you… Okay, love you sweetie."

He hung up, and sighed into his hands. It had been a long and tiring morning so far, and it was bound to just get worse and worse as it went on. So far he'd made calls to all the schools in the city. SFIT had closed for the day, as had the major high schools and public primary schools. The private schools had refused to close, so officers had to be stationed there to keep watch. So far only a few of the escapees had been found, most of them amateur gamblers from the night before last. Apart from that, none of them had been found, including thirteen of the fifteen supervillains the heroes had locked away.

"Ai-yai-yai…"

This was gonna be a LOOONG day.

A sudden sound startled him, and the whirring noise made him look up to see the big red robotic hero hovering down in front of the station, the five human heroes on his back. Rocket touched down, placing a fist on the ground, allowing the Big Hero 6 to disembark, Blast running over to Gerson immediately after hopping off the robot's back.

"Sargent Gerson." He greeted from behind his purple visor.

"Where were YOU freaks last night!?" Gerson quipped.

"Hey!" Disk stepped forward. "It's not as if we KNEW a breakout was gonna happen!"

Gerson sighed.

"Well, you're here now." He said. "Simmons' waiting for ya."

"Thanks, sir." Blast said politely before leading his team up the steps to the building.

Rocket stopped and scanned Gerson before walking in.

"You appear to be : fatigued." He noted robotically, following his primary programming.

"Yeah?" Gerson retorted. "How'd you get that? Too much blood flow in my brain?" **[2]**

"Actually, you have : dark rings under your : lower eyelids."

"Rocket!"

The robot-nurse-turned-superhero looked up at Blast's call to see the five human heroes waiting for him. Rocket took one last look at Gerson before following the team into the station.

The moment the Big Hero 6 stepped inside they encountered a rather mad Sargent Simmons barking orders at her cohorts.

"I don't CARE that there's a great big hole in the first floor right now!" she was yelling at three startled officers. "Right now I just care about rounding up the escaped criminals! Understand!?"

One timid-looking young Japanese trainee stepped forward.

"S-Sargent? It'd be a bit easier if you were to task the Big Hero 6 to help-"

"Firstly, Nishioka, the fact is I don't order the vigilantes around because they're not part of the police force! And secondly, I only called them away from their own attempts to catch the escaped supervillains because we have a BIGGER problem right now!"

Everyone's eyes widened at that.

"B-BIGGER… problem!?" Nishioka stammered. "Than supervillains!?"

"Ahem."

The four police officers looked up to where Plasblade had cleared his throat for their attentions, spotting the six big heroes standing there. Simmons nodded to them, Blast returning it, before turning back to the officers.

"Mobilise the force." She ordered. "Get out there and catch what bad guys you can. The Big Hero 6 will be there to help when their done with their mission."

All three stood at attention.

"Y-yes, Sargent!" Nishioka saluted.

"Dismissed."

The three officers ran off to the back of the station, Nishioka grabbing his walkie-talkie while the others ran to mobilise the other officers in the station. Simmons, meanwhile, turned and stepped up to the Big Hero 6, Blast stepping out to meet her.

"Sargent Simmons." He greeted. "What's the short-notice?"

Simmons glanced around to see if anyone was eavesdropping before answering.

"Darren Larrix was found dead in his cell this morning when we went to check them." She told them in a lower voice.

The remaining four human heroes looked at each other, Chemi almost bringing a hand to her helmet in horror. Even Rocket tilted his head back in surprise. Blast frowned inside his helmet, still looking at Simmons.

"What was happened to him?" he asked.

Simmons slipped out her tablet and handed it to him, displaying a picture of Larrix's cell, with the obvious difference of a dead man in prison uniform lying on the ground back from the bars, as if he'd been thrown. There were cracks and dents in the concrete, and the bars had been bent and blasted outward from a point. Larrix's skin and clothes had been scorched, both his head and one of his forearms blackened and burnt, and the screen noted injury on the back of his head from where he'd hit the ground, pointing out the pool of dried blood there. Surrounding him were tiny dots, almost like…

"Is that… shrapnel?" Blast asked.

Simmons held her hand out, prompting Blast to hand the tablet back.

"Yep." She answered, disgruntled. "And the bars were bent and oxidised. Seems like someone planted a bomb in there sometime between the night shift and the breakout." **[3]**

"You didn't see who did it in the CCTV footage?" Disk questioned.

"Already checked 'em." She refuted. "Someone whipped it. Every tape of what happened last night between the shift change and this morning is gone. Not only that, we found that along with every other bad guys' tech, the Cybug suit was missing from impound."

"What!?" Plasblade gasped.

"That's bad." Disk stated.

"Whoever killed Larrix must've taken the suit." Zilla deduced.

"That was our thinking." Simmons confirmed.

"But who?" Blast voiced. "Do you know of anyone who wanted the suit?"

"Nope." Simmons shook her head. "And none of the other supervillains had access to the materials to make a bomb down there. So far the only guess we've got is that whoever Cybug was working for took him out after his failure to get him the generator he stole from Krei."

"Maybe he caused the breakout too." Zilla folded his arms to think. "I mean, great timing, don't you think? Larrix's interrogation was supposed to be today."

But Simmons shook her head.

"No." she stated, almost defeatedly, unusual for her. "The timing was air-tight. No way he could've known. Unless…"

Simmons trailed off and rubbed her tired eyes with her hand. Rocket quickly scanned her.

"Your neurotransmitter levels are : fluctuating." He stated. "You appear to be : anxious."

Simmons scoffed briefly.

"You're quite a know-it-all, aren't ya big guy?" she addressed him.

"You okay Sargent?" Blast asked.

If any of them expected a "What do YOU think?", considering the situation, they'd've been disappointed as Simmons let out a huff of worry and folded her arms.

"Two decades ago, Cybug had this boss who could hack into anything." She told them, memory in her eyes. "This guy's moves always mirrored Larrix's. We always knew there was someone behind most of the villain outbreaks, as well as Cybug's attacks, and back then it was hard enough for us to deal with. When Cybug reared his ugly head, his boss would too. When he vanished thirteen years ago, so did Turbo."

"Turbo?" Chemi asked.

Simmons sighed in frustration again.

"That's who his boss was before." she said. "We sent in our special forces to get him when we could find him, only for him to escape, several times. When Cybug ran into the dirt, Turbo went under, and now it seems like the pale freak is back."

Most of the team was content to let Simmons be, what with her state right then. But Blast was the first to take the initiative and the first step to fixing things.

"Do you know where Turbo might be?" he asked.

Simmons shook her head.

"We only managed to get a lead on his location a few times, and every time he'd slipped up intentionally to trap us." She replied.

"Hmm…"

Blast frowned at the ground, no leads seeming apparent, so he listed what they knew off on his fingers.

"So Larrix is dead, his suit is gone, the security footage is cut and all our potential witnesses are on the run."

Then it was Simmons' turn to frown, this time in thought. Then all six watched as her eyes lit up.

"Maybe not…" she realised. "Come on!"

* * *

Simmons led them to the lift and down to the tenth and final level of the prison. Entering the lobby, Simmons stepped to one of the keypads, and Blast, removing his right gauntlet, moved in front of the other.

While the Big Hero 6 weren't technically working for the police, the government had eventually given them authorisation to this part of the building. It took a while for Simmons to trust them even marginally, but eventually she agreed to it, and so Blast was given a password, and his handprint was scanned into the system. None of the others were allowed to access it without their leader's specific authorisation, and had to do it with him AND Simmons along with them.

After a few moments they were in. Simmons led them down the hallway, past lines of open cells, including the dented and blasted one where they knew Cybug must've been kept. She led them to the end where, to their surprise, they found a cell on the right that was not empty.

Sitting on the bench behind the closed bars was an old man, probably about sixty years of age, wearing prison scrubs. He was tall, six feet, and his hair had gone full grey. His head was rectangular in shape, with a defined jaw, bushy eyebrows and a large nose. His blue eyes were clearly tired, having seen a fair amount and paid for it.

Sitting there, still in his cell, was former-professor Robert Callaghan.

OF course, they shouldn't have been surprised. Callaghan had no reason to escape. Since the team had rescued Abigail he had no reason to continue his revenge, not to mention the fact that he'd learnt his lesson in the incident. Now he was down here with a life sentence in the lowest floor of the jail, his only company the other raging supervillains. Or it _was_ , rather.

"Professor."

Blast's greeting drew the old man's attention, and he looked up, smiling sadly as he saw the six heroes and stood up.

"Big Hero Blast." He responded, formally.

The Big Hero 6 obviously hadn't visited often, only coming in every so often when one or two of them occasionally helped the police bring in a supervillain. Even then, only Blast would acknowledge the former professor on occasion before leaving. Even with this rare of an occurrence, and the fact that there was never all six of them down here at the same time, he didn't seem surprised or confused, and for good reason, too.

Callaghan walked up to stand near the bars with his hands behind his back, regarding the six heroes and the Sargent with a calm smile.

"I would ask why you're all down here, but I think I already know." He stated.

Blast looked to Simmons for confirmation to proceed. She nodded. He turned back to Callaghan and spoke.

"We need you to tell us whether you saw someone down here before the breakout last night."

Callaghan nodded, and began to walk back to his bench.

"I assume, since you've brought the team down here, the situation's worse than I thought?" he asked, looking back at the seven law-enforcers.

Simmons answered before the Big Heroes' leader could get a word out.

"That's not for you to know, old-timer." She declined. "Now tell us what happened."

He sighed as he turned and sat down on the bench, hands together.

"Were you awake to see Larrix's killer?" Blast asked, a bit more politely than Simmons.

After a moment Callaghan nodded, and began to speak.

"Yes, I was."

* * *

 **Last Night**

The metal screeching of the lift jolted Callaghan awake in his cell. Grumbling, he held his hands over his ears in a tired attempt to block the noise. Thankfully after a moment the lift stopped, and he sighed and tried to go back to sleep again, only to be woken again moments later when the doors to the lobby clicked and slid open.

Grumbling, Callaghan turned his head to look up at the clock on the end wall of the cell hall, which he could only see from there because he was in one of the last two cells in the hall.

He frowned. It was only 11:12 at night. It wasn't time for the shift-change yet.

Right after he thought that, there was a thud and a gasp, followed by the much heavier thud of a body hitting the concrete floor. Callaghan's mind quickly came to the conclusion that someone was infiltrating the prison, with the likely goal of breaking someone out.

Curious, he stood up from his bench and stepped over to the bars, staying next to the wall so whoever it was didn't spot him eavesdropping. Carefully, he looked out.

The short, balding man in a purple velvet suit walked down the hallway from the unconscious and bleeding night guard behind him, hands together behind his back and a malicious smirk on his face. Eventually the man stopped and turned to a cell's bars, not too far from Callaghan's own cell, and rapped on it three times with a long-ish metal stick with a round bob at the end; probably what he'd hit the night guard with.

Inside the cell, a man woke up. Darren Larrix.

He gasped in surprise and rolled off the bench. Shaking himself awake, he stood up and looked up to see the man in front of the bars.

"Boss!" He exclaimed quietly, so as to not alert anyone.

He walked over, smirking as he did, to where his boss now paid him visitor.

"About damn time!" he said, grabbing the bars. "Now get me out!"

But the mystery man did no such thing. Instead, with lightning-reflexes, from behind him he revealed the handcuffs the night guard had and snapped them onto both one of the horizontal bars of the cell AND Larrix's hand.

Larrix's grin changed to a confused frown as he looked down at his chained hand, then back at the mystery guy.

"Boss?" he asked, experimentally trying to pull his hand away. "What are you doing?"

Only then did the mystery guy speak.

"You have been my loyal employee for many years." He lamented in his creepily high-pitched voice, even as Larrix kept trying to tug his hand away. "You have scored many thefts, killed many people who got in my way, and even managed to evade the Big Hero 6 is multiple occasions. But this time you failed me."

Larrix looked up, eyes widened.

"But I got the generator!" he frantically pleaded. "And I threw it away before Plasblade could grab it from me!"

The man nodded.

"You did." The man agreed, admiring the metal stick in his hands "And you are lucky it landed on a pile of garbage bags and wasn't damaged, otherwise I would be sure to make you wish you'd been more careful."

He looked up and now outright GLARED at Larrix, who shrunk back as far as he could in fear.

"But then you revealed yourself to a crowd of people, all of whom saw what you tried to do. Most of them are in the upper levels, but some got away. Then you proceeded to let yourself AND my suit get ARRESTED by the Big Hero 6!" He looked back down at the stick. "And as I can't let Sargent _Dynamite_ get my identity out of you…"

With a sudden movement, the mystery guy whacked Larrix over the head with the stick, and the former supervillain collapsed on the bars and slumped down, unconscious and hanging from the handcuffs. The mystery guy smirked down at his former minion, before holding onto both ends of the stick and collapsing it into the bob at the end and pocketing it in his suit. Then he pulled something else out of the pocket, which he pressed a button on, expanding it into a large hexagonal device with a clamp on one side and a timer on the other.

Callaghan frowned. A bomb.

The mystery madman stuck the bomb to the bars by the unknowing Larrix's handcuffs, then set the timer for five minutes.

He stood back, seeming pleased with himself, before brushing his hands off and stepping back toward the night guard, and the lift. As he left, Callaghan head him say one last thing:

"And now I have to find some new minions."

* * *

"A few minutes later all the doors except Larrix's opened." Callaghan continued his description to the Big Hero 6 and Sargent Simmons. "I stayed inside of course, I have no motive to get out. All the other bad guys ran though, as you can imagine. Then, moments later, the bomb exploded, causing what you see there."

Blast held a hand up to his helmet-covered chin in thought while Simmons continued writing notes down on her tablet. Then the hero leader frowned and looked back up to Simmons.

"At what time did the explosion on the first floor go off?" he asked.

"Uhh…" Simmons flicked her screen to the event-log. "11:20, half a minute after the breakout started."

"That's when the bomb down here went off." Callaghan confirmed.

Blast set his face and turned to face Simmons and his team.

"Then that settles it." He established. "Larrix's boss must've also been behind the breakout. With everyone in here escaping her could slip out with his new cronies without anyone noticing."

"You think Turbo could've somehow opened every cell in the facility remotely?" Disk asked Simmons.

But Simmons was frowning as she looked back up from the tablet.

"He could've, but Callaghan's description doesn't match Turbo's." she replied. "Turbo was taller, and had pale white skin and hair. This is someone new."

"Cybug must've picked up a new boss during his downtime." Zilla figured.

"Why would he do that?" Plasblade asked.

"I dunno." Simmons shrugged. "He's never done that before."

Blast sighed and folded his arms.

"So we have a new bad guy that we don't know who is, where he is or how to find him, AND our only lead was killed by failure."

"AND whoever he's hired now is among hundreds that escaped in the breakout." Disk added.

Both Simmons and Blast nodded, before the latter turned back to Callaghan.

"Thank you for your time, Professor." He acknowledged.

"You're welcome, Hiro." Callaghan told him, winking at the stealth pun.

Blast nodded, and finally led his team and the Sargent back toward the lift, all of them soaking in what they knew about the situation. And, from any of their perspectives, it did not look good.

* * *

Hiro dragged himself into the garage and dropped his helmet on one of the benches before slumping in a wheelie chair. After the visit to the Police Station, the Big Hero 6 had unanimously decided to ignore the Cybug case for now and focus on recapturing the escaped supervillains. With both school and all of their jobs temporarily shut down because of the crisis, and no leads on the case, they'd had no other choice.

It was evening now, and the six superheroes, tired from catching three of the thirteen escape bad guys who had been robbing a jewellery store of all things, then crashed in Hiro's home-lab/garage that both he and Tadashi had used many times for their projects at SFIT. They couldn't go back to HQ, 'cause they couldn't feasibly drop off at the mansion to change without having to travel the now-dangerous streets after dark without their equipment.

The garage wasn't actually connected to the rest of the house/café that made up the Hamada's home, but sat on the street to the left of the café. It was rather spacious inside, though most of the wood-framed walls were taken up by tons of shelves filled with various files and folders, tools and carbon-fibre 3D-printer rolls, and the rest had a state-of-the-art 3D-printer, a number of benches and two desks on opposite sides of the room with computers, plasma and holographic-screened. There was also a red couch sitting opposite the big, fold-up wall that was the garage entrance, where Fred and Wasabi were currently chilling.

Honey had sat down on a stool, and Baymax had positioned his box next to Hiro, while Gogo couldn't help but pace back and forth in the room, restless. Honey watched her worriedly. As the one on the team with the best qualification of 'team mom', besides Hiro's Aunt Cass if she'd known about their secret, she could always tell when something was up with one of them, and right now she knew that something was eating at Gogo.

Knowing that Honey would be staring at her, Gogo threw a glance back. Honey threw her a pointed look, and Gogo finally snapped and turned to where Hiro was now draped over the wheelie chair.

"There's something I don't get." She said finally.

Hiro brought his head from its resting place over the back of the chair to look at her. Fred and Wasabi looked up too, and everyone knew Baymax would be listening too. Now that she had all of their attentions, she spoke her mind.

"Callaghan said whoever killed Larrix said he'd evaded us several times."

Everyone looked at her quizzically, so she continued.

"We've only fought him twice." She eleborated. "Chemi and Plasblade only even knew his codename because he signed out with it when talking to his boss during the theft."

Hiro sat up better in the chair, but still leant his back into it, folding his arms.

"I think two counts as 'multiple times'." Fred stated.

Gogo threw him the "really?" look.

The sound of ACDC blaring drew everyone's attention to Hiro, who quickly moved to draw his phone from his shorts pocket.

"Gogo has a point." He said as he pulled the offending object from his pocket and checked it. "It's a bit odd for him to say that, but it's probably nothing."

Gogo sighed irritably as Hiro answered the familiar number.

"Hey Aunt Cass." He started.

" _Hey, sweetie._ " She started. " _I know you've been busy in the garage all day with your friends, but I've got seven chicken wings together and I think it's time you guys called it a day._ "

Hiro smiled and sighed at his Aunt.

"Okay, we're coming in now."

He moved to hang up, only for her to say one last thing.

" _Oh, and Vanellope came in and asked for you earlier._ "

This little bit surprised Hiro a bit. Everyone SHOULD be staying in their homes due to the breakout, and his friends only had the excuse that they'd stayed over the previous night playing videogames, or, rather, working on hero-tech. Why had Vanellope ignored that and come over? And even the something didn't make sense. There had to be a catch. Why wouldn't Cass direct her to the garage, where she thought they were?

"Oh." he replied a bit dumbly. "Okay."

" _In fact she's still here now._ "

That was it. She'd been hanging out in the café all day not wanting to disturb him?

"Tell her I'll be there in a sec." he said, waiting for the "okay" from his Aunt before hanging up.

He stood up and put the phone away, looking up to his friends.

"Aunt Cass is calling me in." He said simply. "And I think she's got dinner ready for all of us."

Everyone nodded and stood up, except for Baymax, being a robot, and Fred, who leapt out of the couch and shouted:

"YES! NOTHING is better than free food! Unless it's mouldy!"

* * *

A few minutes later, the gang, now in normal clothes, stepped into the café. It was locked and required Hiro's house key to get in, but when they did the group of six found the place pretty much empty, having been closed because of the crisis, not that anyone would be outside to come in anyway. Cass was wiping the counter and had set up a table for everyone in the middle of the room. The TV was on, still tuned to the 24-hour news channel that continued to update everyone on the events following the breakout, including the successful capture of three of the escape supervillains by the gang.

The only major unexpected thing about the café was how Vanellope Von Schweetz was now pacing to the right of the table, with a worried look on her face. The moment she turned at the café bell to see the six entering, she finally stopped, and her worry switched to anger.

"Where were YOU today!?" she snapped.

Hiro turned to his surprised friends briefly before answering.

"In the garage." He lied. "All day. Why didn't you check?"

"I DID check." She replied. "Twice."

"Well, you must've just missed us."

"Oh, so you must've gone out THERE then! Where there are currently a dozen escaped supervillains!"

Uncomfortably realising how dangerous this was getting to compromising the team, Hiro quickly changed the subject.

"And what about YOU?" he shot back. "The trains are down, all public transport is on hold, so you decided to WALK ALL the way here, in a breakout crisis!"

"My apartment is fifteen minutes away."

"Yeah, well—it—that—that's no excuse!" he finally spluttered out. "Why did you even do it!?"

"Because my friends were some of those who got out, and I'm worried!"

Everyone's, except Hiro's, eyebrows shot up, and Cass froze. It took a few moments for Vanellope herself to realise what she'd said, at which she quickly deflated and looked around at everyone.

"Okay, what?" Fred said at last.

"Alright, spill." Gogo ordered. "What do you mean 'got out'?"

The gang already knew about Van's friends from the mission review Saturday night, but they were smart enough to stay in character, and from Van's point of view they didn't know her friends had been arrested.

Van sighed and glared at the ceiling before looking around at them all.

"Look." she started. "I'm a pay-to-play dance battler, okay!? I go out and dance for money in back-alleys! Taffy and Candy are my teammates, we do everything together and split the score! On Saturday we went for another battle but got interrupted by a superhero battle, and we got arrested! I got bailed, but my friends didn't, and they were there during, and even took part in, the breakout!"

"W-wait." Hiro interrupted. "How do you know that?"

She turned her glare on him.

"Because I called Taffy's phone," she retorted, ", and Aunt—Sargent Simmons answered!"

She turned and glared around at all of them, huffing.

"Happy now!?"

Nobody moved except Cass. The older woman closed her mouth and stepped around the counter and walked up to her. She placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, but Vanellope just glared down at the ground and refused to meet her eyes.

"Hey, it's okay, Vanny." She reassured. "We're not mad at you."

Vanellope rolled her eyes at her.

"I'm not a four-year-old." she griped, "Besides, you're not MY aunt."

Cass just stepped around her and placed her other hand on her remaining shoulder.

"That doesn't make me any less caring." she reasoned. "And trust me, I had to raise two super-nerds, I KNOW when a young adult is disressed. AND I've had to deal with the boys in similar situations to you before. You know, Hiro used to bot-fight, and some of Tadashi's old friends from high school once tried to pressure him into breaking into a liquor store once, which got them arrested for theft. I can sympathise with how you feel."

Vanellope finally looked up at her.

"Did Tadashi's friends escape in a mass-breakout of supervillains that left him worried about them?" she deadpanned.

"Well, no, but he WAS worried about them about how it affected HIM, and it was exactly how you're feeling."

Vanellope looked at her for a long moment. Then, finally, she sighed and slumped slightly, her worried frown returned.

"Thanks." She said at last.

"But that doesn't excuse you gambling!" Cass scolded, though she was smiling. "What were you thinking!?"

Van chuckled lightly with Cass at that. The older woman was so motherly that she could even scold her nephew's old best friend.

"I'm sorry, Ms Hamada-"

"Vanny," Cass interrupted, ", call me Cass."

And Vanellope didn't have it in her to resist as Cass pulled her into a comforting hug, resting their heads on the other's shoulders. Van closed her eyes, feeling better already.

Unnoticed by the two of them, Hiro had huddled the gang together back at the door.

"What?" Gogo questioned.

"What is it?" Honey also asked.

"Remember how Simmons said impound had been cleared out?" Hiro asked them.

"Yeah."

"Remember that."

"So why was Taffyta's phone still there?"

All four of the others frowned for a moment, thinking. Then, one-by-one, their eyes lit up.

"Larrix's boss was looking for new recruits!" Wasabi quietly realised.

"So you're saying…" Fred began.

"He led Van's friends out of there without stopping by impound." Hiro deduced. "THAT's why her phone was still there."

"But why would he hire THEM in particular?" Gogo pointed out. "There were a lot of far worse bad guys down there."

"That's what we need to find out." Hiro replied. "And to do that we're gonna need some help."

Hiro turned his head to Vanellope, who had just broken the hug with his Aunt, and the other five followed his gaze there. When he turned to look back at the group, the same idea was plastered in all of their heads.

"No." Gogo immediately refuted.

"She's worried about them." Hiro reasoned. "We're trying to find them. We can help her."

"We talked about this." Gogo argued. "It's bad enough that Krei and CALLAGHAN of all people know. We can't just go telling everyone about us."

"Then why don't we make her ONE of us?"

Gogo raised her eyebrows.

"You want to drag your old best friend into the fight!? Are you nuts? She could get hurt, or worse, killed out there!"

"So could any of us. Any one of us could go down out there at any time, but we go out there anyway. The real reason we don't go down? We have each other's' backs. With her with us she'll be safer than any of us are even now."

The others nodded in agreement, but Gogo still didn't seem convinced this was the right thing to do.

"And to be honest, if we're gonna be able to get her friends back, she may be the only one who can talk to them."

Gogo looked past him at Vanellope, _Ethel Tomago_ fangirl who was just worried about her friends. Too smart for her own good, who had easily become suspicious about where they'd been all day. Snarky, a bit headstrong considering, and a good old friend of _her_ team leader.

But when it came down to it, she may be the only one who could convince her friends to stop working for the bad guy.

Gogo sighed, then turned back to Hiro.

"Fine." She conceded, taking one last glance back at Vanellope. "We'll show her tomorrow."

* * *

 **[1] If you pause the movie on the TV in the Café right after the battle at Krei Tech Industries, you'll notice in the lower-right corner of the TV screen it says 'Action 7 News'.**

 **[2] Just gonna point out that Gerson doesn't know what he's talking about. He's just tired and grumpy.**

 **[3] Oxidised basically means the bars were rusted. The explosion gave the metal atoms in the bars sufficient energy to give electrons to oxygen molecules in the air, forming metal oxide.  
Basically the explosion caused the bars to rust where they were hit.**

 **Not entirely pleased by the talk between Van and Cass at the end of the chapter, but oh well. Shitappens.**

 **YIKES this is longer than I planned! Nearly 6K! That's a bit big of a stretch in the OTHER end!**

 **Next time, well, I think I'll let you read for yourself!**

 **Next Time: Chapter 10: Revelation**


	11. Chapter 10: Revelation

**REVIEW REPLIES:**

 **Superfan44:  
So much for "update soon". *grumbles*  
Thanks. I may have been out of it a bit while I was writing, but I'm glad you think it's okay.  
Yeah, I didn't think he'd need to get out. He doesn't need to take hi revenge against Krei anymore, and rebelling against the BH6 would make no sense. He also feels guilty, trying to take revenge when she was right under his nose the whole time. He'd stay, and he'd help if needed be.**

 **Samtastic2.0:  
Thanks.  
You'll just have to wait on the answer to your question I'm afraid!**

 **Lisa Von Cooper:  
Yeah, we can pretty much assume she will. Just give her time.  
Oh really? Thanks!  
I think it's a well-known fact that Rocket's a robot, though just not a squishy nursebot. Van quickly deduces it back in ch3, so you can assume so has everyone else.  
I actually completely forgot about Sour Bill! Though, TBH, he wouldn't have worked for the Cybug character anyway.  
Larrix is an OC I invented to be the original Cybug, only intended for early on in the story before I replac—I mean get rid of him to advance the plot.  
It's okay to be curious. It's just not the done thing to ask for spoilers. Not that you were asking for spoilers, I just wanted to point out the difference.  
Thanks for asking, and thanks for all the feedback! =)**

 **Emeraldalex123:  
AHHHH! MY EA—EYES! Don't SING that!**

 **RainEpelt:  
Thanks! I was kinda unsure. Good to know someone thinks even slightly better. =)**

 **AirFireWaterEarth:  
No. The aptly nicknamed 'King Candy' is not Turbo.  
Wait, what? Where'd you read that? I've never heard of a more ridiculous idea in my life. Why would Stan be close with Van's 'rents?  
Spoilers!**

 **SharKohen:  
Thank you! I'll pass this on to Hanaekaptr!  
I'm glad someone thinks it's going well! TBH, I think it's spiralling out of control. The story I'm writing is getting more and more different to the original plan I put together for my friend's approval.**

 **AUTHOR'S INTRO:**

 **Hello again! I'm SO sorry for the delay!**

 **First I had trouble putting the chapter together, then just when my holidays began and I hought I could get stuff done, I got sick. Then my COMPUTER got sick. Then I had to reinstall Windows 7 and nearly lost EVERYTHING! Luckily I had an old backup from moths ago I could work from, plus Metabox, the company who made my laptop, managed to save my schoolwork and Fan Fiction folders, so I didn't have to gather my chapters from the web and re-write most of my plans.**

 **All in all, I'M BACK! I'm FINALLY back! And as a 'sorry' note, here's a brand new chapter of your beloved Big Hero G-G-G-GLITCH!**

 **So, anyway! If you were expecting a big long thing with the Big Hero 6 revealing their identities, than I'm afraid you'll have to wait a chapter, 'cause it's been a day and we have to catch up with Taffy and Candy, at least briefly, before heading off into the drama with Vanny.**

 **Even so, enjoy!**

 **Chapter 10: Revelation**

Taffyta felt like she'd been taken from one jail only to be dumped in another. At least this one had actual beds.

The limo that psychopath had taken her and Candlehead in had stopped off only an hour after leaving, at which point both of them had been woken up and led blindfolded through who-knows-where to what she could only assume was a bed, as it was by far more comfortable than the benches in prison. She didn't remember much after that, as she immediately fell asleep.

When she did come to, her first surprise was that she could actually see, meaning someone had taken off her blindfold sometime after she'd laid down. She blinked a few moments to get her eyes to focus, not having used them since the alleyway escape, whenever ago that was. She hadn't had any sleep since arriving in SF, so who knew what time it was now?

When she could see again she was surprised to find herself in a room that looked rather similar to their jail cell, through instead of a brick wall it was completely steel-lined, walls, floor and roof. There were no windows, the only light coming from the LED bulb on the ceiling. She was in a single-bed, wrapped in plain blankets, flat against a wall to her right and behind the headboard, and looking to the left she could see Candlehead still asleep against the other wall. At the other side of the room from the beds were, not bars, but twin sliding-doors, each with a circular window in the top-centre.

To be honest, while it was definitely very different from the cell, the room still felt to Taffyta like a prison. The beds were weird in that respect, the comfortable things giving a completely different feeling from the rest of the place. A much more comfortable feeling, which had Taffyta guessing that they had been set up just for the two of them.

Slowly, she pushed the blankets aside and sat up. She was half-pleased to find she was still in her orange slacks. Pleased that no git had taken the time to remove her clothes. Not so pleased about the smell, or the fact that she'd been wearing them for at least 24 hours. Ew.

Still, beggars can't be choosers.

Quietly for some reason, Taffyta stood up and moved over to where her mint-haired friend was lying in her own disturbingly-comfortable bed. Carefully, she shook her a bit.

"Candy!" she whispered. "Wake up!"

Candlehead moaned quietly and rolled over in her sleep, clutching her blankets like a teddy-bear.

If they hadn't've been taking in by some sort of terrorist, Taffyta would've taken the moment to giggle at the adorable younger girl. But right now things were serious, and she needed to get her up.

"Candy!" she shook her again. "Remember last night? You need to wake up!"

Candlehead wobbled again by herself and sighed in her sleep, slowly opening her eyes. Then her eyes focused and widened, looking past Taffyta. Then she pretty much leapt up the headboard.

"AAAAHHH!"

Taffyta was startled for only a moment before reacting.

"Shhhhh!" she hissed urgently. "Calm down!"

Candlehead quickly got a hold of herself and started settling down, breathing deeply while her eyes darted across the metal room frightfully before landing and fixing on Taffyta and focusing. Still panting, she stuttered as she spoke.

"T-T-Taffy?" she spluttered. "W-Where are we? W-What's going on?"

"I don't know." Taffyta admitted. "I think we're waiting for that guy."

It took a moment for Candy to remember who she was talking about it and get her meaning but then her anxiety spiked slightly.

"This was a REALLY bad idea!" she fretted quietly.

A clanking noise from the other side of the room startled them before Taffyta could say anything else, and the girls' heads darted to the doors, which were now sliding open to reveal, funnily enough, the mystery man himself.

The purple-suited man was smirking calmly as he entered the room, which was enough to chill Candlehead to the bone. She started shaking, and once again cuddled into Taffyta. The platinum-blond, however, only glared at the guy and said nothing as she stood next to the bed, her friend in her arms.

The guy "hmm"ed appreciatively as he looked the two in the room.

"I thought you'd've woken up by now." He commented without changing his expression. "I WAS a bit surprised you slept in, but then again, prison beds ARE horrible."

"How did you know we were up?" Taffyta snarled.

"Oh, I checked the security cameras." He said nonchalantly.

Then he lifted his left sleeve to reveal a large metal band of some kind, covered with buttons and blinking lights. There was a screen in the centre of it, and there were jumbles of wire criss-crossing all over it.

"They are my eyes and ears anywhere I go." He explained before dropping his sleeve.

And indeed, looking up into the centre of the roof, Taffyta could see the tiny, black, hemispherical device that gave a 360-degree, panoramic view of the entire room.

She turned her glare back to the guy and asked her next question.

"You didn't tell me last night, and I want you to tell me now." She demanded. "Who. ARE. You?"

He laughed bit with his apparently signature laugh before answering.

"My apologies, miss Taffyta." He told her. "But I didn't think a prison surrounded by crooks and police officers was the right place for it."

"Crooks? And you aren't?" She wasn't convinced in the slightest. "And you didn't answer my question, AGAIN."

He tutted at her impatience, but, finally, he answered.

"I am Callus King." He said, bowing mockingly. "Master hacker, leader of an underground separatist group, and currently your host and employer." **[1]**

Taffyta and Candlehead shared a look, the younger girl mouthing "employer?" to the other. Taffyta turned back to this 'Callus King' to gripe some more.

"Separatists?" she grilled. "You mean 'criminals'!"

King shrugged.

"Either or."

"And what do you mean 'employer'?" she continued. "What do you want from us?"

"Ooh-hoo-hoo!" he chuckled. "Now THAT would be telling!"

Her glare intensified, so he continued.

"Now, if you'll kindly follow me into the building, we can discuss business."

Her turned to walk out the doors, but the girls didn't move even when he turned to wait for them. Taffyta just kept up her dirty look, so he just turned again and kept walking, calling back:

"Just come out when you're ready!"

Then the doors shut with a click, though the clanging noise from earlier didn't follow, signalling that they weren't locking, letting the girls leave the room if they wanted.

Taffyta finally relaxed her grip on Candlehead slightly, and stole her glare from the door to replace it with a concerned gaze at her friend. The mint-haired younger wasn't shaking anymore, but still seemed seriously frightened.

All of a sudden Taffyta felt guilty. She'd dragged Candy into this, forcing her into the breakout she didn't want any part of, even as things got more and more out-of-hand, and all to get back at Vanellope. They didn't even know what the guy was planning with that!

She didn't like King. This guy SERIOUSLY unnerved her, AND he bothered Candlehead. But, they were stuck in this now, no way back, no way out. They had only one option: find out what he wants.

Taking a deep breath in and letting it out, Taffyta stood out from her position at Candlehead's bed and stood up proper. Before she could turn to coax Candlehead to do the same, the girl reached out and snatched at her sleeve.

"Taffy, don't!" she pleaded. "This guy is bad! REALLY bad!"

"Maybe." Taffyta agreed. "But we don't have any other options. We have to follow him and find out what he wants."

Candlehead shook her head and made no move to get up. Taffyta shook her head, eyes closed, and held the arm on her shoulder.

"Come on, Candy." She said. "You have to get up."

Candlehead stared directly at Taffyta, fear in her eyes, before finally nodding timidly and moving to get up.

Candlehead hung close to Taffyta as they followed King's path to the doors, which opened automatically to reveal King still standing waiting for them on the other side. Seeing them follow, he turned and led them into the building.

The first room they entered from the doors was a large computer room. Roughly five by seven metres in size, there were rows of desks on either side of an isle down the middle that led to a lift. There were windows on the wall by every desk, though they were blocked off so no one could see outside, and there no doors other than those for the lift. Each desk was topped by a computer, each being used by people (who Taffyta jealously noted were all wearing clean, NORMAL clothes) working diligently at them. She couldn't understand what they were typing, some code of some sort, but they were more than likely working directly for King.

Basically, they were probably criminals like him.

King led the girls to the lift, telling them to hop in. They both hesitated, Taffyta sparing a still-uneasy Candlehead a look before leading the younger girl in. What Candy was afraid of, and what Taffy then had to put up with, was that they had to stand so close to the short madman in the small lift compartment. He wasn't actually that threatening, but from afar he was a creep. Up close he was just downright wrong.

The lift led up the building for a number of minutes, meaning they were either in a tower or underground. Or the lift was just moving REALLY slowly.

Eventually, though, the compartment stopped, and the doors opened into a fair-sized circular room, with a five metre radius, the ceiling domed and metal-plated. On either side of the lift stood two thugs, different from the previous night, each carrying a rifle. At the wall opposite the lift was a large screen, with a control panel fringing the bottom, and two chairs, currently empty. But in the middle of the room was where all the action was.

A bunch of engineers and machines were working on building… something. The girls couldn't quite tell what. It was currently in several parts, a number of large metal rods and circuits. Some seemed to be shaped like claws, and others like armour plates, but way too big for a human. A number of strange spike-thingys were being connected together with carbon fibre into two, seven-metre-long, curved tubes, resembling almost radio antennae. Strange machinery was being worked on in the middle of the construction zone, including some sort of robotic body, built around an advanced generator. Other parts looked like more of a suit, a more demonic version of those worn by those weird heroes the other night.

The girls started as they heard King's infamous laugh once again, turning their heads to see him stepping around them and the workers, smirking creepily.

"Impressive, isn't it?" he asked them.

Taffyta looked back to it briefly, then turned back to King, while Candlehead couldn't tear her eyes away from whatever was being built.

"What is it?" Taffyta asked.

The man stopped to think for a moment, and she suspected he was contemplating whether to tell them or not. This question also finally managed to draw Candlehead's scared gaze back to him. Finally he made his decision, and started walking again as he spoke.

"It's our current major project. " He said. "It is the latest in a line of suits I've been building for a long time. I'm sure you remember Cybug from a few nights ago?"

Taffyta shared Candlehead a look. Cybug?

"What's…?"

Then the platinum-blonde's eyes widened. The grey-suited supervillain who crashed their dance battle! That must have been this 'Cybug' King was talking about. And apparently, he'd been working for HIM.

Her eyes widened with dread, and Candlehead gasped and drew her hands to her mouth. They realised they weren't just working for some terrorist. This was a criminal ensemble, and King was the big bad.

King made his laugh again, and the girls' heads slowly swivelled back to where he had walked to, at the other side of the room form them. His laugh made him seem both amused and maniacal at the same time. Perfectly fitting the stereotype for a super-boss, then.

"You're a supervillain." Taffyta breathed.

"No, actually." He replied. "Cybug was a supervillain. I was just his benefactor."

"Was?"

"Oh, of course," He glanced at them again. ", you don't know of the second bomb that went off that night. A bit sad really, that he'd outlived his usefulness. But, that's what happens when one of my employees gets arrested."

It didn't take a genius to realise what he was implying. King killed his own minion. For being arrested.

Taffyta did her best to return the glare to her face as he laughed at their expense, balling her fists to keep the illusion of anger to hide her fear. Candlehead just seemed more frightened.

By this time the short man had circled back to the girls, and as he walked behind them he stepped around to stand on Taffyta's other side, watching the overlarge science project going on before them.

"He was one of my later designs." He told the girls. "Well, the SUIT was, and still is in fact. I had it taken from the Police Station during the breakout."

"And what's THIS then?" Taffyta asked, waving a hand to the workers and their 'project'.

"It's an improvement." He revealed, continuing his walk around the room. "The Cybug suit had… issues. Firstly it was only one suit, and the wearer had limited control over its capabilities. It was always just a prototype for a much better suit, one that could be mass-produced into an army of Cybugs."

"What army?"

"You'd be surprised how many street rats and alley gangs there are in San Fransokyo." He told them. "And just how many of them will agree to anything for money. And now, after the breakout, there are even more potential recruits my current soldiers can gather.

"But every army needs a commander." He continued. "Someone who can lead them, and be much more reliable for… smaller missions. That's why I'm building a bigger suit, a definite leader that can't be matched, and who's leadership will be unquestioned. You will not believe how much work I've put into this. So far I've had to gather all of these resources, then I had to have the old Cybug steal _this_ from Krei Tech."

He gestured to the generator as he passed the opposite side of the room again.

"This is a prototype Tritium-Ion Generator from Krei Tech Industries. The suit needs a lot of power, more than any normal generator can output. Just a motor may be able to run the main body for a few days. But something that runs on fusion power could run the whole thing for decades, until its hydrogen fuel runs out. And by then the suit will be a scrapheap, replaced by something even better.

"The point is, this is my lancer. THIS is my Cybug Queen." He announced, looking back at the girls. "This is the minion who will lead my army of Cybugs. Preferably a girl, otherwise she wouldn't exactly be a _queen_."

Taffyta's fake-glare faltered.

"'She'?" she didn't like where this was going. "Y-you don't mean…"

She turned to Candlehead, who looked back in confusion for a moment before she caught up. Then she squeaked in sheer terror and shrunk back, once again staring at King. The psychopath laughed again, stopping his pacing for another moment.

"Ooh-hoo-hoo! I'm not using YOU two!" He seemed genuinely amused by the prospect. "You aren't smart enough to be commanders!"

Candlehead visibly relaxed, breathing out in relief despite the situation they were still in, the insult going straight over her head. Taffyta just glared at him again.

"What I need is someone headstrong who answers to me, follows my orders yet smart enough to make her own decisions." he told them. "I'm gonna find the perfect person for this, and you two are gonna help me."

She shook her head and kept up her glare. They came with him to find out what he meant by "getting back at Vanellope", not to help his evil scemes!

"No!" She shouted, balling her fists. "I'm not gonna help you turn some random 'perfect' girl into a supervillain!"

"Well, you don't exactly have any other option at the moment." He reasoned. "You have nowhere to go and I'm not exactly gonna let you leave the building anyway."

Taffyta frowned at the ground, weighing their options. King was right. She had no idea where they were, in a tower or somewhere underground. If they ran they'd be lost in here, and King would send thugs to catch them or kill them long before they reached the ground floor. Even if they DID manage to find the front door they had nowhere to go in the city. The apartment wouldn't let them in because of their record and the only other place they could go was he Police Station, with the terrible beds AND the fact that King could still just waltz in and kill them like he did Cybug. They didn't have another choice but to do what he said.

She sighed and set her jaw. Then she nodded.

"O-okay." She wavered.

She couldn't see her, nor did the younger girl say anything, but she knew from the quiet gasp that Candlehead was looking at her in surprise and horror. She sent an apologetic glance to where she stood by her side before turning back to where King now stood, smirking again, on the other side of the room again.

"What do you want us to do?" She asked, defeated.

King crooked his finger and turned to walk up to the big screen behind him. Candlehead gripped Taffyta's hand in both of hers as the platinum-blonde led her around the mess of engineers in the centre to where he stood. King twisted around to face them as they stopped nearby, and began to speak.

"I still need a few things in order to complete the suit." He told them. "Your new 'friend' will be able to control the whole thing with her mind, but with its size it'll need extra 'brains' to function. I'll be sending my thugs on a raid tomorrow to gather the control mechanism and these computers, as well as some fast motors for the limbs to function. After that, we'll have everything we need for the suit. That is when we'll find our commander and hire her. Oh, don't worry. My thugs will take care of that."

"Then why do you need _us_?"

"You see, while she'll be the leader of the army, she herself will be under my command." He said. "She'll need a team working back at mission control to keep her on mission, warn her of approaching enemies, among other things. A signal will be kept active by a long-range transmission sent over the TV signals from those two tail-antennas you see there."

He flippantly pointed over his shoulder to the two tubes in the construction project, then gestured to the monitors.

"This is where you'll be working as long as our candidate is the Cybug Queen." He told them. "You will be her eyes and ears, keeping watch on her. And if she gets out of line, there will be measures you can take. You know, electric shock, kill switch, that kind of thing."

The freaky part about this guy: Just how nonchalant he was about hurting and killing people, even his own minions!

"Your training for it will begin tomorrow, when you oversee my minions' raid on the establishment where they'll steal the final parts for the suit."

Taffyta looked up to the big screen. It was panoramic, spanning an entire tenth of the wall surrounding the room. Two metres tall, with a grand total of just over three-and-a-half metres across, it was almost certainly big enough to show maps, visuals from both facecams, CCTV AND the view from the eyes of one of King's soldiers, probably complete with a HUD for advanced monitoring. The console beneath it was extensive, with a massive array of buttons for the two of them to use from the empty wheelie chairs in front of it, the curved panel being far enough back from the screen for the whole thing to be visible.

It was the perfect command station. From here they'd be able to monitor the Cybug Queen entirely, whoever she ended up being. It would be their responsibility to monitor some unknown, ordinary, innocent girl-turned-supervillain , under the employ of an evil super-boss.

"Well?" he inquired, smirk still plastered on his face. "What do you think?"

Taffyta seriously despised this situation, but there was nothing they could do about it.

She turned back to look at King at this, and glanced back at her green-haired friend, spotting her staring horrified at her, quaking again in fear.

She looked to the ground again, muttering "Well, it's our only option", before returning her defeated gaze to King.

"It's… well thought-out." She said.

"I'm glad you think that," He said, but stepped toward them and pressed for more. ", but what is your opinion?"

She looked back down to the ground, avoiding his gaze.

"It's monstrous." She said truthfully.

"Ooh-hoo-hoo!" he actually seemed _pleased_. "Good! 'Cause that's EXACTLY what it is!"

She glared back up at his face again, now scowling at him turning her insult into a compliment.

"Well, It takes a monster to lead an army of monsters, doesn't it?" he reasoned.

He finally turned and began to walk back toward the lift, leaving the two girls standing in front of the control panel, watching him go. Only now did they see the clock on the wall above the lift doors, showing the time as 6:00 in the evening. They must have slept all day.

"Your first shift starts tomorrow." King called from in front of the lift doors. "You may stay here and look around for a while. My recruits here will guide you down to your room when you're ready to get some sleep."

Taffyta frowned as something came to mind.

"Wait!"

He stopped and turned back to look across the room at her, one upbrow raised and the smirk still on his face.

"You said you'd help us 'get back at Vanellope'." She stated. "Where does THAT come into this?"

He chuckled again.

"Be patient, dear Taffyta." He cooed, continuing his journey to the lift. "You'll see! All in good time!"

Taffyta frowned. This guy was psychopathic, supervillainous, and now he was turning his back on their deal. Not that they were really planning on following through on that part themselves.

King stopped as he reached the doors and turned back to them again.

"Oh, and don't try anything funny." He looked pointedly at them, tapping the sleeve covering the band. "I'll be watching."

He laughed his laugh again and entered the lift. The doors closed and the two thugs stepped forward to stand guard in front of it, not that they needed to with King's apparent constant watch.

Taffyta turned back to look up at the screen where they'd be working for… probably indefinitely. Right now it was incredibly foreboding of all the terribly things that had happened, and about to happen. When King had talked to them in their cell, Taffyta never would've guessed this is why he wanted them.

He said he'd help them get back at Vanellope, and all for the 'tiny' price of being press-ganged into helping him creating a supervillain. AND he still hadn't given them clean clothes!

This was all horrible.

With King finally gone, Candlehead could muster up the courage to address her friend, who had just taken the initiative to force both of them into the employ of a supervillain. Taffyta actually looked nervous herself, looking into screen as if it wasn't even there, her face baring a defeated expression.

"Taffyta?" she asked, questioning her actions and her feelings.

Taffyta was silent for a moment, before finally tearing her eyes from the blank screen. She looked down to the console blankly, avoiding her friend's eyes.

"I think…" The platinum-blonde realised. "…this might not have been a good idea."

* * *

 **[1] Alright, here's his name at last. Callus King is an OC of mine inspired by King Candy. I didn't think 'King Candy' was an appropriate name for someone in the modern day.  
And yes, I did mention an old principal of Vanellope's she nicknamed 'King Candy', but that's not this guy. This guy is someone else.**

 **The mecha-suit idea went through several stages while we were thinking of it, one of which was rather dark for this story, so I fixed it up to what it is now.**

 **So here it finally is! Make of it as you will, 'cause I don't even.  
But, it now leads into the plot lines of the story, which you'll see pop up throughout the next few chapters.**

 **Next time it's the big one! We get back to the Nerd Herd as they reveal their identities, Van gets some advice from none other than the Swizz and his gang, and Abigail gets some unexpected, and unwelcome, visitors at SFIT…**

 **Next Time: Chapter 11: How to Help Your Friends**


	12. Chapter 11: How to Help Your Friends

**EDIT 17/03/16: Just so you know, I'm Still alive, I've been slacking, and I'm been busy, and the next chapter will be out by next Monday.**

 **REVIEW REPLIES:**

 **Ornstein the Dragon Slayer:  
(Hiccup: Hey! Dragons are cool!)  
Thanks so much mate! Glad you like this story and my writing! I honestly think my writing skills could be a bit better, but if it pleases people, then it's good enough for me!**

 **Johnny Spectre:  
Actually, I completely forgot about the cybugs' absorbing abilities…  
Maybe it's a safer bet for a science-fact story to leave that kind of thing out.**

 **Miss Wipplesnit:  
Thanks for catching that mistake!**

 **101olive4u:  
What, and it wasn't already? =P**

 **AirFireWaterEarth:  
Ooh! The sarcasm is dripping, my elemental friend!**

 **Superfan44:  
Well yeah, because 'King Candy' would be a ridiculous name. That's why I gave it to Van's old principal. Callus King is actually more the character you should associate with the King Candy of the movie.  
Your question will be answered, I promise!  
But, you're gonna just have to wait and see how it plays out, especially with the reveal.**

 **Lisa Von Cooper:  
Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of pure shipping stories. They just don't interest me. I like it when there's action and plot, rather than romance drama. That's why I write, to tell an action-hero-story that I want to tell people, not a sappy soap opera people have seen a million times.  
Like I said, you'll see how it plays out with Taffy and Candy! Just you wait and see!  
Taffyta and Candlehead, Big Heroes? Yeah, no.  
Yup, Swizz is returning with Gloyd and Rancis, though the big reveal isn't exactly humerous. You'll see.  
Sure, art takes time, except I can write an entire chapter, proofread it AND get it on the web within four hours on a good day! But an entire MONTH!? That was TERRIBLE!**

 **Emeraldalex123:  
*snorts* agreed.  
Wow, everyone's commenting identically on the Taffy and Candy situation!  
Like you said, you gotta wait and see…**

 **Samtastic 2.0:  
Thank ya very much!  
Yesss… maybe Abigail could be the one he's after… You'll have to wait and see what this 'visitor' of hers is about…  
Next time though. It'll only be teased at the end of this one.  
Constant vigilance, my friend! Keep that open mind runnin'!**

 **SharKohen:  
Yeah, King isn't an OC, more of a King Candy insert. Larrix was though.  
What do have against OCs? Give 'em a personality that can be discerned and they're much like ordinary characters. A number of my future stories will involve an OC or two.**

 **Suicide Forest:  
Thanks!**

 **Sanaa11:  
I'm glad you like it so far, and I'm TRYING, I really am, to get new chapter out. I've just been hitting a few problems with figuring out this here chapter, part of the reason I've been gone so long. But I PROMISE, I'll try to get chapters out quicker from now on!**

 **AUTHOR'S INTRO:**

 **I'm BAAAAAAAAAK!**

 **I'm REALLY REALLY REALLY sorry for my absence! I won't lie to you. I was fed up with this chapter. Kept having trouble with the beginning. But once I got past that I could get rolling down the hill of written words to the finish at the bottom!**

 **This means that HOPEFULLY I can start pushing out chapters quickly like I promised!**

 **Call it a Christmas present. =P**

 **So! This time I have made sure to improve on my writing skills, despite them being rusty, so I don't feel terrible about the crap I write.**

 **I once again apologise profusely for my absence, and I say to thee:**

 **ENJOY!**

 **Chapter 11: How to Help Your Friends**

With everyone staying over, Van and the Nerd Herd had to cram into the lounge room. Fred bagsed the sofa, leaving the four to use some blow-up mattresses Hiro had offered to bring up from the garage. He didn't seem phased by the argument earlier, though Van DID spot him sharing glances with Gogo, who seemed more irritable than normal. Even after the rare lost race she usually didn't lose her cool, so what was that about?

The next morning, Cass turned on TV to check the status of the breakout crisis, to find that while most of the escapes had either vanished or been re-arrested, the police had still suggested people stay where they are for the time being. Now knowing that there would be no customers today, Cass grabbed various savoury foods from the Café downstairs and let the six hungry young adults help themselves.

Breakfast was loud and chatty, mostly thanks to Fred. The group avoided talking about Van's friends, or hobby, for which the girl was grateful, so the comicbook-addict blabbed on about some comic superhero in a comicbook he had with him. Needless to say, no one really cared, but they listened anyway.

The day got properly interesting when Vanellope asked the group what they were going to do that day.

Hiro shared a look with Gogo, who rolled her eyes and scowled at her half-eaten toast.

"Well, I suppose I could show you around the garage." He suggested, turning back to Vanellope. "It's where I spend most of my weekends."

Vanellope shrugged.

"Okay."

After Vanellope offered to help Cass clear up, and was politely refused, she followed the five nerds, and the red box that held Baymax, to the garage door that stood next to the café. Vanellope had never been in the garage, since when they were kids Cass wouldn't let them, so she was interested to see what the place looked like.

Though as Hiro pressed the button on the outside wall to open the door, which folded upwards, the first thing that caught Van's eyes was a big, yellow, EMS bike.

Vanellope's jaw hit the floor.

Standing in the middle of the garage, sitting next to her yellow helmet, was Gogo's, _Ethel Tomago's_ , Electro-Mag Suspension bike. The very same one she'd used to so far win THREE trophies at the annual SF Alternate-Propulsion Bike Races.

An EMS bike was special because it used superconducting electromagnets hover in the air on its wheels without touching them, limiting friction caused by wheels spinning on their axles. It was hard to achieve, making the design rare, even in the AP races.

But what made Gogo's in particular REALLY special was its unique design.

It mostly looked like a motorbike, with its famous, yellow, carbon-fibre shell that made it extra streamlined. However, it was actually mostly hollow, the real trick behind it being the push-bike pedals on either side of the chassis. Close-up, the air-cleaving exterior was made up of many smaller plates, fitted nicely together tighter than a jigsaw puzzle. The most unique part of the design was, surprisingly, the handles. Instead of one bar attached to the front wheel, it had two handles attached to sticks that sunk down inside two, large, round, almost pipe-like constructions built into the front of the vehicle.

Ethel had always stated to the press that it was the design she was used to, and gave her more steering control. The bike was almost banned from even the AP races because of it.

Van stared at the awe-some construction, the bike she had idolised for years.

"O.M.G."

"Hooray," the adrenalin-junky dryly stated. ", you've seen my pride and joy, good for you."

Vanellope turned and frowned at her for acting so pissed off.

Gogo barely reacted, but turned to Hiro beside her.

"I still don't like this." She told him.

"Hey, we discussed this," He argued. ", and yours is easier to equip."

Gogo sighed and stomped toward the bike, even as Van tuned to Hiro, confused.

"What's going on?" she asked.

Hiro didn't reply, only pressed a button on the wall to close the garage door, revealing the mural on the other side. He nodded past her, and Van turned to what Gogo was doing.

As Van watched, intrigued, Gogo straddled the bike-seat, fit her feet into the pedals (with the bike-stand still up), then grabbed the handles, twisted them ninety degrees and pushed them down into the pipe-things. Then the bike, for lack of a better term, exploded.

The pipes constricted on Gogo's hands, sealing them in and moulding to them to become gauntlets. The different parts of the chassis started folding up and moulding around Gogo, the silvery pedals fusing with the yellow casing to become the soles of two boots. The rear wheel-magnets shifted to sit on the sides of these boots, and the wheel itself split in two, lifting the boots off the ground. The front wheel expanded, folding outwards into a much larger disk that moved to hang onto Gogo's right gauntlet. The rest of the bike folded outward, the internal bike-chain becoming a bandolier, and quickly the entire bike turned into a suit reminiscent of Iron Man's armour.

Vanellope's eyes widened in surprise. Standing where the bike use to be, minus her helmet, was the yellow-suited superhero from the Big Hero 6. She may have only seen them once, but it was impossible to mistake the yellow armour.

Gogo, THE _Ethel Tomago_ , was one of the Big Hero 6.

"Wh-what?" Vanellope could barely speak.

Gogo, or whatever her codename was, fitted her shield to the magnet on her back and crossed her arms, frowning at the gawking younger girl. She nodded to her right, and Vanellope looked to see Wasabi pulling a box out from under one of the tables, inside were THREE MORE suits. Purple, pink, aqua.

Vanellope looked to her own right when Baymax then inflated, and watched as he walked onto a white pad next to the wall, and as a set of robotic arms started pulling big red armour plates out of the wall and clipping them to the white robot. Suddenly, the walking marshmallow was now the big red robotic superhero.

Someone tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned. She jumped and stumbled back. Fred was in a… suit… of his own. The blue monster-thing.

Vanellope kept stepping backwards. There were now three Big Heroes standing in Hiro's garage. Hiro, Honey and Wasabi were left, and there were three suits remaining. Six nerds, six suits…

"You… you're…"

"Hey, I'm sorry I didn't tell you before," Hiro said to her. ", but it's better if people don't know our identities."

Vanellope felt… well, betrayal was part of it. As she stood back and saw all six of them standing together, Gogo's frown, Honey and Hiro's apologetic smiles, Fred's calm smirk and Wasabi's worried glance, she couldn't see the Nerd Herd anymore. She could only see the team of six that had surrounded that supervillain in the alley the other night.

These were the six who attracted the police' attention to their dance-battling. They had also saved not only _her_ life, but probably the lives of everyone in that alley. They put themselves in danger, every day so far as she knew, to stop bad guys the police couldn't.

No one said anything for a moment. Then…

"YOU LYING, CRAZY, STUPID, DIRTBAG!"

The Big Hero 6 jumped when Vanellope suddenly shouted.

"Oh, so you graduated high school at thirteen and THIS is what you're doing!?" she yelled, pacing back and forth in front of the six. "Yeah, must be fun, causing trouble for bad guys, oh, AND getting people who haven't done anything wrong ARRESTED!"

"Whoa, whoa, hang on-" Hiro tried to speak.

"YOU'RE the reason Taffy blew up on me that night, because it just so HAPPENED that you bozoes crashed a supervillain and led the police right to us!"

"Hey, that's not fai-"

"But you go out there EVERY DAY against them! Don't you realise how stupid and dangerous that is!?"

"Would you just-"

"And you didn't even tell me the other day, when I was BLABBING ON about my stupid life, and you lied and kept your own stupid secret!?"

"Hey, I didn't lie-"

"So now you have a great big, gummy bear robot you can fly around this stupid city, smashing your way through whoever gets up your-"

"YEAH! With his awesome rocket fists! And with my fire breathing, nothing can stand in our-"

"FRED!" Wasabi shut him up.

"JUST LET ME EXPLAIN!"

Vanellope finally froze and zipped her lips, startled by Hiro's sudden outburst. Calming down, the nineteen-year-old supergenius took a deep breath and spoke.

"Yes, my friends and I are the Big Hero 6." He clarified for her. "We've been doing this for five years, ever since the Krei Tech incident."

She frowned and folded her arms at him.

"And why's that?" she snarked.

Hiro sighed and hesitated.

"You know about the fire," he said finally. ", and Callaghan, and… and my brother."

Vanellope's frown softened as she remembered what Sticky had told her. That the Big Hero 6 had only showed up AFTER the fire.

"After the fire, Baymax and I discovered this guy wearing a kabuki mask, making thousands of my microbots." He told her. "When I realised he must have stolen them at the showcase, I figured he must have caused the fire on purpose, and Tadashi was his fault. So, long story short, I ended up teaming up with Tadashi's old friends, making a bunch of suits and going after him. Though, it wasn't until after we discovered who he was and why he was doing it that we stopped him at Krei."

"Huh."

Vanellope let herself calm down as she thought about it. Though, she was still kinda annoyed.

"Well that explains a lot." She said, still glowering slightly at him. "Explains where you were yesterday."

"There were, and still are, supervillains out there who escaped in the breakout." He explained. "We went out yesterday to try and catch some."

"Succeeded, too!"

"Why are you telling me all this?" she asked, ignoring Fred. "No one else knows who you are."

Hiro rubbed the back of his neck.

"Normally, I wouldn't be telling you at all," he explained. "Far too dangerous for EVERYONE to know. Even Aunt Cass doesn't know."

"Then why are you telling ME?" she spat.

Hiro frowned and looked back to the others for support, only to find the unimpressed scowled of Gogo.

"Well you've already told her THIS much, idiot."

Hiro rolled his eyes and turned back to Vanellope.

"As well as helping catch escapees, we've been looking into the cause of the breakout on orders from Sargent Simmons-"

"Oh, so you really DO work for the police?"

"We're NOT working for the police." Gogo interrupted. "We work WITH them when necessary, but we're freelance."

"Point BEING," Hiro spoke up again, ", We're trying to find out what happened. So far we know whoever did it was also Cybug's boss, Cybug being that supervillain who attacked you on Saturday."

"Yeah, don't remind me." Vanellope bristled and frowned back at Hiro for reminding her of that night.

"We also know that this boss killed Cybug just BEFORE the breakout, and then started looking for new recruits."

"And what does this have ta do with me?" she questioned.

"Because you're friends' phones were some of the only things left in impound." He told her. "Almost everything else had been taken when the escapees charged through the station on their way out, except some stuff belonging to some who were injured in a cave-in on the first floor, the same floor your friends were on."

Van looked down and thought for a moment, then her eyes widened as she realised what he was implying.

"You think this boss you're after took, or… _hired_ , Taffy and Candy?"

"Then escaped through the hole left in the roof from the cave-in." Hiro finished, nodding. "We don't know where he is or where to find them, or even why they agreed to go with them. But we were hoping YOU would."

She frowned again.

"You want my help." She deadpanned.

"We NEED your help."

"YOU six Big Zeroes want MY help?"

"We need your help to find them and this boss so we can-"

"How the freaking heck do you think _I_ know where they are!?"

"Well, it- it's more than that," he tried to add. "Like I said, it's dangerous if other people know. I mean what if some villain finds out? They could go to our homes and catch us off guard, maybe even hold our families hostage."

"Then why are you telling me you idiot!?" she shouted.

"Because I want you to join the team!"

Vanellope stopped, staring shocked at Hiro with wide eyes. Hiro exhaled and stopped speaking, waiting for her to reply.

HE wanted HER to join the Big Hero 6? Well, it wouldn't be 6 anymore, but not the point. Her old friend wanted HER to put herself in danger every day to catch some super dangerous boss who they didn't even know how to find.

"WHAT!?"

Hiro winced, and Honey, Baymax, Fred and Wasabi were taken majorly aback by the outburst. Gogo was the only one who didn't react, clearly unsurprised by Vanellope's reaction, and continued to be unimpressed as Hiro tried to explain.

"L-listen, if you help us it'll be quicker and easier to take down this guy-"

The way Van could see it, her _friend_ , who had just lied to her, was asking her to use her fighting skills and powers, which she didn't have, to go up against a freaking PSYCOPATH, and all she could get out of it was her friends.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?"

"Vanellope, listen-"

"No! I'm not—I don't—I…"

Couldn't the 6 do that on their own? They didn't need HER to save them, or get herself…

She felt like she was gonna vomit.

"I can't."

And with that, Van dodged through the six stock-still heroes and slammed her fist onto the garage door controls, and the moment there was a gap under the mural, she bolted out and onto the empty street, ignoring their cries after her, her only thought to get as far away from Hiro's request as possible.

Back in the garage, Hiro, Honey and Wasabi stood shocked at the entrance, watching her run off into the distance.

"Way to go, genius." Gogo deadpanned unhelpfully. "You just sent your girlfriend running out into a city full of escaped supervillains."

Hiro glared back at her before stomping toward the box that hid his suit.

* * *

Vanellope ran until she couldn't run anymore, and slumped against the wall of one of the many closed shops to catch her breath. She'd just had to run. She was caught far too off-guard. Running was the only thing she could do to stop from vomiting.

After breathing in and out a number of times, trying not to be reminded of when Baymax had helped her with that the night her friend were arrested, she stood up straight and stared off into the wall she was leaning against. A plain, concrete wall in the middle of a line of shops. A line of shops that was strangely deserted… oh, wait.

She'd just run out onto the streets that were filled with escaped criminals. How smart of her.

She facepalmed. Or rather, face-walled into the shop, sighing in defeat from this ridiculous morning.

She looked around, and upon not recognising where she was, reaching into her pocket. Then she groaned as she realised she'd left her phone screen in a blow-up mattress in Hamada's lounge room. Just great.

But there was no way she was gonna go all the way back there to get it. Not now. She couldn't. She needed time to herself, specifically AWAY from Hiro.

Sighing, she pulled herself from the shop wall and started walking down the street, folding her arms across her body as she walked her path to nowhere.

She'd guessed there was something, that he was hiding something, on Sunday (had it really been only two days previous?). He'd slipped up about Wasabi's fear of heights, but he hadn't commented on it. She'd just figured, well, everyone has their secrets, though what kind of secret could be hidden with the explanation of skydiving was anyone's guess.

Made sense now, now she thought about it. Baymax, or whatever Hiro calls him when he's in the armour, he could fly. She'd seen him hovering down into the alley, and he had wings and rocket boosters in him feet. After five years, no wonder Wasabi wasn't scared of heights anymore. Good thing too, she figured. After all, a fear like that would be a bad distraction while fighting people who wanted to…

Speaking of fighting, Vanellope was fighting another wave of nausea as her main reason for running away came back to her. Her brain was really have a hard time coping with this.

Breathing again, she kept on walking, trying to get everything that just happened straight in her head.

So, Gogo, _Ethel Tomago_ , was the yellow superhero with the wheels and the shield, and her super-bike was actually a super-suit in disguise. Honey Lemon was the pink one in the miniskirt, with that strange chemical-ball gun. Wasabi was the aqua-green one, with lightsabre/blaster gauntlets. Fred was the flaming blue monster, Baymax was the great big, red, flying robot, and Hiro Hamada, the friend she'd met fifteen years ago and hadn't seen in fourteen, the friend who had admitted to being an ex-bot-fighter, was the purple one with hoverboots and laser guns in his gauntlets.

She really wished she'd gotten their codenames.

"Miss! Hey, miss!"

She turned as she heard an odd whirring noise, and sighed as she recognised it. Stopping and turning on the spot, her eyes found said purple super-zero hoverbooting towards her. The man, the nerd, the jerk, slowed down to stop in front of her, adopting an authoritative attitude.

"You shouldn't be out here, miss." He said in his modulated voice. "The police issued a warning yesterday-"

Not in the mood for this act, she interrupted.

"Cut the crap, Hama-"

"SSHHH!"

Hiro, or whatever he calls himself, covered her mouth with his gloved hand to shut her up. She frowned at it annoyedly.

"Secret identity, remember?" he whispered.

Van sighed into his hand and nodded.

"Then what do I call you?" she asked quietly once he removed his hand.

The deep purple, almost black, visor hid his face from view, but she was certain he was smirking underneath that stuck-up helmet of his.

"Blast." He answered.

"What kind of a name is that?"

She wasn't smiling this time, and didn't wait for an answer before continuing her walk down the street, fully away of Hiro, Blast, walking beside her.

She didn't really, in fact she REALLY didn't, want to talk to him right now. Still shocked and upset, she really needed a moment alone. Unfortunately, the Big Hero didn't seem to be aware of this.

"Look, I'm sorry about all that." Blast started after a moment of walking. "Just sometimes we need help at our backs."

"You have a team of six Big Heroes for that." She argued wearily. "Isn't that enough for you?"

Blast shrugged.

"There's safety in numbers." He reasoned. "The more on the team, yes, the more likely one of us will get hurt, or worse, but the better we can all protect each other."

"But you guys have all that cool tech you invented! I'm just a dancer! What am _I_ gunno do against supervillains? TWIRL them to death?"

Blast failed to hold back a snort, and Van couldn't help but put on a small smile for it. It quickly vanished though.

"I didn't just use THEIR tech." He explained. "Chemi, Disk and Plasblade's tech IS adapted from some of their stuff, but for Zilla's I had to start from scratch. Same with Rocket's, and my own suit. I can make you a suit and weapons you can use to protect people, including yourself. Besides, most dance moves are completely interchangeable with fighting styles. I learnt that from karate."

She looked at him, raising an eyebrow with intrigue.

"You got karate lessons?"

"Sorta. My brother started when he was thirteen, not long after you left, and while I was in high school he started tutoring me. Didn't think it'd be very useful, but it tired me out, helped me sleep. And after our first fight I made the decision to keep helping people, so Disk and Plasblade started training the rest of us properly in this training ring Zilla's dad has."

He stopped talking, but she kept gazing at him, and when after a moment her silence made him looked at her, she pressed for him to elaborate.

"He used to be a superhero, back in the twenties." He said. "Called himself 'Shield'. He set up this command room for himself, though he upgraded it to our HQ when we came along." **[1]**

"Where's that?"

"Classified."

Vanellope snorted, prompting Blast to turn to her amusedly.

"What? It is!"

Vanellope shook her head at him, still smirking. Blast sighed and turned to look ahead.

"Maybe we'll show you around sometime." He mused. "You can use it too, if you want. Keep fit, healthy… trained."

Vanellope sighed and stopped walking, staring at the ground again. Blast noticed and stopped, turning to look at her.

"Please help, miss."

Vanellope felt slightly nauseous again as she looked back up and shook her head at him.

"I can't." she declined.

Blast hesitated before speaking again.

"I… didn't want to mention this…" he said, "But if your friends are working for this guy willingly, you may be the only one who can convince them to stop."

Vanellope nodded slowly.

"Right."

This was terrible. Was the only way to get her friends back really to put herself back in danger? In the path of someone who could do to her what the other one, Cybug, nearly did?

"It-it's just that…" she started, "This is dangerous, and you know it. I nearly got… killed on Saturday. I mean, I want my friends back, I really do, but I don't think I'm ready to put myself back out there."

He sighed, but nodded in understanding.

"We'll do our best on our own." He said finally.

She sighed and slumped in relief, though part of her seemed… sad?

"I just need some time to think, K?"

He nodded.

She smiled sadly, and began walking off alone again. She got a few metres before Blast spoke up again from where he stood.

"Watch out for escaped bad guys." He warned.

She turned and walked backwards, facing him.

"The report said they all vanished, remember?"

Blast smirked under his visor and shook his head as Van turned back around and continued walking. And as she rounded a corner, he turned and activated his hoverboots before zooming back down the deserted streets to the Café.

* * *

But Vanellope didn't have much time to think, as much to her annoyance, less than fifteen seconds after denouncing a possible encounter with escapees, she ran into some criminals.

Or at least, SHE called them criminals.

She just didn't like the traitors for leaving her and her friends to get arrested.

No sooner had she rounded the corner when a certain blond-haired man in a brown hoodie stepped out of an alley.

"Hey look, it's that Schweetz girl from Saturday!"

She stopped in surprise as she found herself face-to-face with The Swizz. AKA Swizzle, the green-haired tan one; Rancis, the blond-haired relative; and Gloyd, the quiet one with the necklace.

Vanellope frowned, then glared.

"OH, hey, uhh…" Swizzle greeted, walking over with the other two. "What was it? Penelope?"

She walked up to meet them, only to slap Swizzle upside the head and send him stumbling into Rancis on his right, and the two collapsed into the pavement.

"Ow!" Swizzle reached up to rub his reddening cheek.

"Yikes." Gloyd muttered, watching on with mild amusement.

"You alright, Cous?" Rancis asked as helped his cousin to his feet.

"Yeah, ah." Swizz winced, still rubbing his face as he turned to match Vanellope's glare. "What the hell was THAT for!?"

"For leaving the REST of us to get arrested!" She erupted.

"Hey, there was a supervillain there," he argued, "and we weren't exactly gonna get OURSELVES arrested. For the first time ever, I might add."

"It was OUR first time too, and I'm thinking you could'a, I dunno, gotten us out of there too!?"

"Hey, every dance group for themselves!" Rancis proclaimed.

"Look, we barely knew anyone in that alley, not even you three!" Swizzle said. "The only reason we're talking to ya right now is because you were our competition, which was very good competition by the way-"

"You're right, I don't even know why I'm talking to ya." She growled. "Now get lost."

Still frowning, she turned to walk the other way, choosing to ignore Swizzle's sigh until he spoke up again.

"Fine, we overheard you and Big Hero Blast!"

She stopped.

"We heard you guys talking." he continued. "You said your friends were in trouble."

Vanellope turned and stomped back to them, though this time she grabbed Swizzle's arm and pulled him roughly into the alley the trio had come from. She didn't care much that Rancis and Gloyd followed. Swizzle complained about the fingernails digging into his arm.

"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow."

Once several metres in, she unceremoniously tossed him into the wall and glared at him again. Gloyd and Rancis crossed their arms, watching the scene as the latter leant against the alley wall near his cousin.

"What's going on with Blast and my friends is none of your business." Vanellope growled at Swizzle.

"Hey, hey, hey!" he piped up, hands up in surrender. "Just chill! I'm just concerned!"

"Why!? What've YOU gotta do with it!?"

"It-I just thought it was odd!" he stuttered out. "You're out on your own out here, and the three of you looked inseparable back there! I would'a thought you'd escaped together!"

"That's just it! I DIDN'T escape!" she yelled. "I was bailed by my uncle the day before!"

"Your friends weren't so lucky, huh?" Rancis sounded almost sympathetic, though he was smirking.

Vanellope sided a glower at him.

"Wait wait wait wait," Swizzle interrupted, ", hang on. And your friends DIDN'T try to find you after the breakout?"

Van turned back to see his confused frown, and realised he was genuinely concerned. She calmed down slightly and replied.

"I thought they would too," she said, ", but they didn't."

Swizzle nodded with understanding.

"So that's what your talk with BHB was about?"

Quickly getting the acronym for 'Big Hero Blast', she groaned and turned away from the trio, folding her arms and glaring at the dead-end wall of the little alley. She was still annoyed they'd listened in, and was not sure how much they'd heard. At the same time, she REALLY wasn't in the mood for his questioning.

"Hey, hey, you don't have to say how you know him." Swizzle conceded. "Just enlighten us."

After another moment of staring contest with the wall, she sighed, and looked back at the green-haired dancer.

"Fine. He told me that the guy who orchestrated the breakout could've hired them or something." She detailed, sombrely. "That's… possibly why they didn't come back."

Swizzle shared a look with Rancis, who continued the tuned-down interrogation.

"And…" he pressed, "Does he know who this person behind all this is?"

"Sorta." She shrugged. "All he and his frein… team, knows is he's the guy that supervillain from the other night was working for."

"So your friends are now working for a supervillain?" Swizzle summed up.

She grimaced, the full realisation of how bad that was hitting her.

"Yeah." She solemnly confirmed.

Swizzle nodded, and, not even needing to look for opinion from the other Swizz Gang-members, crossed his arms and said:

"Then that only leaves one question: Why are you still standing around?"

Vanellope suddenly looked up. Swizzle wasn't gazing at her with pity. Nor anger or condescending. Just a determined frown.

"What?" pretty much summed up her thoughts.

He rolled his eyes.

"Okay, let's put it this way:"

He put an arm on Rancis' shoulder and shared a smirk with his cousin.

"Rancis." He began. "What would you do if I suddenly went missing?"

Rancis never hesitate in his answer.

"I'd pull out all the stops, Swizzle," he replied, ", not stop looking 'til I found ya."

The two turned to the third member of their dance squad.

"Gloyd?" **[2]**

The dark-haired guy hadn't said anything so far, but he smirked and answered almost as fast as Rancis.

"If my two friends were hired by a supervillain?" he asked rhetorically, "I'd beat the living crap out'a him."

Vanellope let out a small snort. He and Gogo would get along well.

"And I'd do just the same for them." Swizzle finished, looking to Vanellope once more. "We're a dance squad, but on top that we are friends and a team. We look out for each other."

Vanellope stared at him as she thought about it, enlightened. That exactly what she'd thought she and Taffyta and Candlehead were. Then she'd blown it in the cell. Some 'friend' SHE was.

But Swizzle wasn't finished yet, and he added:

"If Big Hero Blast offered you a place on the 'Big Heroes' Squad', mission 1 to find your friends, that's a chance you should take."

He had a point, and Vanellope could see it. Still, getting hurt, killed even, like she almost had on Saturday? Could she put herself through that?

"Yes, people could get hurt, even you," Swizzle continued, almost reading her mind, ", but the reward is DEFINITLY worth the risk."

"Even better than Dance Battles." Rancis added.

Vanellope smiled at the ground, appreciating their support.

"You really heard a lot o' that, didn't ya?"

Swizzle shrugged, Rancis sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, Gloyd just kept smirking.

The reward is worth the risk. The risk: getting hurt, or even killed, by a supervillain, or maybe that super-boss.

The reward: finding and making amends with two of her oldest friends, with the help of her six new ones. As well as beating the crap out of the bad guy given the chance.

The Swizz were right. The reward was well worth that risk.

BANG!

Suddenly, all four of them started at the sound of an explosion somewhere in the city…

* * *

 **[1] By "the twenties" he means the TWENTY-twenties.  
Also, Stan/Shield becomes important later on.**

 **[2] Note that their habit of naming each other as they back-and-forth is continued from chapter 2.**

 **Okay, I'm gonna have to leave the Abigail thing I mentioned 'til next time, 'cause I think I've lost the brainpower to put together something worth reading for today.**

 **So yes. I'M BACK! WOOHOO!**

 **Next time, Abigail gets an unwelcome visitor at SFIT, the Big Hero 6 are quick to respond to the explosion, and Van's decision comes to fruition.**

 **Next Time: Chapter 12: Break-In at the Lab**


	13. NOTICE TO ALL FOLLOWERS

**HELLO! Hey, guys. As you definitely know, I haven't uploaded a chapter of this or my other story in over three months.**

 **So first off, I got lazy during my holidays. Four months holiday between the final exams of high school and the beginning of University will do that to you. ESPECIALLY if you can't work at home for the life of you.**

 **Lately I've been trying to get back into the writing game, and I have indeed been making empty promises to you guys. Well, here's some things:**

 **1\. Uni life is tough. It's not exactly harder than high school, but for me I have to take two hours getting there and getting back because I live so far away and I can't afford to move out. I get exhausted afterwards and I need my time to relax.**

 **2\. Recently my parents have been changing stuff with the house, now they're feeling rich now my sister's moved to England of all places, so I've had to skip lectures so I can sort things out in my own room. So things have been hectic lately.**

 **3\. On top of that, I've been having some writer's black for** **Big Hero Glitch** **, and haven't been smart enough to leave it for a while and focus on** **Snow White: An Unexpected Journey** **(which, TBH, I enjoy more). That and spending more time than I should be playing planning** **The Protectors Universe** **with Superfan44 and a game called Kerbal Space Program has made things pretty cluttered.**

 **Basically, I will try my best to get back to** **Snow White: An Unexpected Journey** **and** **Big Hero Glitch** **when I can, but for now I want to focus a bit on Uni work until I have cleared my slate for the semester, and then I'll try to find the time to get some writing done that I can actually be proud of.**

 **Thank you for understanding, I will replace this AN with the next chapter when I can, but for $#!t's sake!,**

 **STOP ASKING ME WHEN THE FRIKKIN' CHAPTER IS COMING OUT!**

 **Thank you for your time.**


	14. NOTICE 160916

**Hey guys and gals!**

 **Just so ya know, I have been posting updates on my situation on my DeviantArt page! Same username, so just Google "Toa Aerrow DeviantArt" and on the right side of the webpage is my latest journal entry, currently detailing some things that have been happening lately and updates to my plans. You might want to read a few journals back to get the full scope of my situation and plans that I have so far discussed. Make sure to watch me to keep getting journal updates, and if you need to sign up for an account, don't worry, it's free.**

 **This is where you'll get updates on YouTube vlogs I'm planning to start at some point, livestreaming at about the same time, and most importantly, information on when I think I'll be able to get back to writing.**

 **I won't go into anything more here, since I've already stated everything in the Journals, so make sure to go over and read them, just the last few, and watch for more updates, especially as I'll be adding one tomorrow regarding a few minor developments (which are really just trivia TBH).**

 **KUTAW, and Aerrow out!**


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